
y ■' ' / " ' 



JlftnDPial jftifion. 



GARFIELD'S CAREER 



FROM THE TOW-PATH TO THE WHITE IhM SE 



His Seventy-nine Days' Struggle for Life, 



\M> I III 



PUBLIC OBSEQUIES 



AFFECTIONATELY OFFERED TO HIS MEMORY BY FIFTY MILLIONS 
01 HIS COT NTRYMEN. 



COMPILED \ND ARRANGED BY T//E PUBLISHERS Willi I 
PREF l< E BY Ri I I J I Bl IIUI VDS 



. n>l N< i : 

J. A. & R. A. REID, PUBLISHERS 

- i . 



E . 



I A a R \ 1:1 





PREFACE. 



HE life of James A. Garfield reads like a romance, s i humble was his origin, so 

was his path m boyl il and early manhood, so uniform and steady was his lati 

until he was called to the highest place in the gift of the Republic; while the tragedy 
of his sudden ami violent death, preceded by more than eleven weeks ,.i" heroic endur- 
ance, provoked the sympathy o( the civilized world, ami has made his name a household 
weld among the one hundred millions of Anglican birth and speech. 
t Nor can there be any doubt that he will continue to he a prominent figure in all our 

future national history. For he shares with Abraham Lincoln the glon of representing 

the best product of our Tree institutions, showing that the path to the lushes- 

3K open to ability, industry, patience, integrity, manly ami generous independence. 1' 
t 

handicaps no man for the long race, nor is it necessarj to sacrifice manhood in the contest. 

Such a lite as that to whieh the following pages are devoted, cannot be studii 

a carefully. I he greatness it reveals was not due to accidental circumstances. It was 

inherent and ingrained. Ii had been conspicuously tested and matured through more than thirty \> 

of devotion in labors small ami great, before the fatal bullet revealed to the- Nation how noble 

the man who had been called to its highesl place of trust. 

And it' these pages shall breathe upon its readers the same spirit of earnest, conscientiou 

God-fearing fidelity to the work that each day provides, they will prove of solid and 1 

the deal' land in whose ser\ iee fames A. Garfield \ielded up his life. 



.: I . I I. t. I I 88l 



^l^n^L^^L* . 






CONTENTS. 



PRE! 



Pagi 



CHAPTER l. 



I \KM BO> 
. I in , \l ION 



CHA PTER I I. 



... I I S 1 • • I 

I ll\ I. I IV MIS 
I IS \\. I 111 WIS.. I 111 



v ii a I'll: kiii 



..Ml \S|i I Will \ III I 
P 



til A PTER I V. 

I I OK I II I III- 

I III OPI II 

:l I III I \--l 
. I Mil It Ml HI \M> 



CHA PTER V . 

I III I \--l MORNING XI 1 ..si. BRANCH I 
six |«. I ill < \l'l I M ni\>. 
WASHINGTON— 1(1 I H.I'. I - -1 II \ Ii I S 
rON UN STAR! 1 "It CLKVKI VNU 

I M . t l I. Al 1111. i tSKl I. 

CHA PTE 1< V I 

I IS \1 CEREMONIES \ I . I 1 \ I I \si> I 
III \ i- \Ai I Kid. I I - DIS4 "I RSI 
BENEDICTION 



I 1 SI K \l 

-I \l I \l 

I \\ A-IIISi. 

I III 1 \ I \ 



I'll \X I II 
\X I I! \S|. 



I \-l Itll I - Al 
III 



l' II APTER VII. 

I III i I Ml I I IIS \ i "Mil \I>1 - I KIII 
• • • ' 

CHA PTE R VIII. 

Mil i will \ SORROW — PRESIDENT ARTHUR'S FIRS1 
in I I. I \l At I A MARKOI SORROW I III NATION 
\I i.Kiii I III WORLD'S SYMPATHY, I 

CHA PT E R IX. 

Al III: 1 III III KIAI , IIY " H M"l Ml - Kl inn I K\ 

■ jl IS Mil I I It I III -.. Kl. IS.. i>l I III KIII V 

BY WALT WHITMAN, i 



GARFIELD'S I I 1 I I K TO MOTHER '. Mil II I l>. 
GARFIELD'S I \\ "III I 1 QUOTATION, 










CHAPTER 1. 




I 



v 



HIS ANCESTORS AND BIRTHPLACE. 

N both his father's and his mother's side General Garfieli | a long lit 

ind ancestry. The firs! of the American Garfield ird, who ■ 

Chester, England, to Mas Ba as earl) as 1630, settl 

=U June 1 |. [672, aged ninety-seven. One of the family, Abraham Garfield, 
General Garfield, was in the fight at Concord Bridge, and was one 
affidavits senl to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, 1 1 prove thai I B 
the aggressors in that affair, and fired twice before the patriots repli< 
lutionary War. several members of the family left Massachusetts ai 
New York. General Garfield's father, Abram Garfield, was born there in 17 >8, He 
lived there till his eighteenth year, when he went to Newburg, Ohio, and 
tied near Zanesville. lie was a tall, robust young fellow, of very much the 
as his famous sun. but a handsomer man. according to th I his wife. H< 

sunny, genial temper, like most men of great physical strength, v ■ ite with hi 

and was a natural leader and master of the rude characters with whom In- v 
ing work, and his later labors in building the Ohio Canal. His education was confim ■ 
in tin- Worcester district school, and the onlj two specimens of his writing extant show tint it • 
thorough enough t>> give him much know ledge of the n thography. I ' 

but the hard life of a po,,r man in a new country gave him little tim< 
money to buy them. The weekly newspapers, ami a few volume'- borrowed from 
intellectual diet. 

On the 3d of February, 1819, Abram Garfield and Eliza Ballon wen- marrii 
Zanesville. by a justice of die peace named Richard II. rlogan. T 
of being twenty-one years of age, and the bride was only eighteen. Eliza B 
of Hosea Ballou, the founder of Universalism in this country. Eliza was born in 1801. T 
are of Huguenot origin, and are directly descended from Maturin Ballou, who fled fi 
revocation of the Juliet of Nantes, and with other French Protestants 
Rhode I-l.ind. the only American colony founded on t! 1 

quence was undoubtedly derived by General Garfield from : : B . who wet' 

The newly-wedded pair went to Newburg, Cuyahoga County, Ohio — n 
Cleveland — and began life in a small log house on a new farm of eight) acres. In January, [821, their 



GARFIELD'S CAREER. 



born, ami I - )• I" 

\. ... r % County, where the father had a contract to 

7 the fourth child, James 1!.. «as born. This was the onlv one 

He died in 1830, after the family returned to the lake country. 

iwnship, Cuyahoga County , where lived Amos Boynton, his 

- mother h\ her second husband — and bought eighty acres of land at 

■iv all wilil. and the new farm had to be carved <>ut of the forest. Boynton 

me size adjoining, and the two families lived together !<>r a 

n of the men. Soon a second cabin was reared, across 

Garl elds was built after the standard pattern of the houses of poor 

lis were of logs, its roof nn as of Bhingles, split with an axe, and its floi r 

I out of tree-trunks with a wedge and maul. It had only a single room, at 

is chimney, where the cooking was done, and at the otherabed. 

lept in a trundle-bed, which was pushed under the bedstead 1 if their parents in the 

•.ay. for there was no r n to spare: the older ones climbed a ladder to the 

la this house James A. Garfield was born. Nov. 10. 1831. 

Iced hard, early and late, to clear his land, and plant and gather his crops. No 

1 wield an axe like him. Fenced fields soon took the place of the 

a barn built, and the family was full of hope for the future, when death 

day in May. 1833, a lire broke out in the woods, and Abram Garfield, 

Kerdng his strength to keep the flames from his fences and fields, sat down 

Id wind blew, and was seized with a violent sore throat. A country doctor put a hlis- 

. d only to hasten his death. Just before he died, pointing to his children, he 

ive planted four saplings in these woods. 1 have them to your care." He 

! a wheat-field on his farm. James, the baby, was eighteen months old at the time. 



HIS BOYHOOD. 

\. ' rarfield was passed in almosl Complete isolation from social influi m es, 

the home of his mother and that of his uncle Hoyntoll. The farms of 

partially separated from the settled country around b\ a large tract 

• \ ravine on another. For many years after Abram Garfield and 
n built their log cabins, the neare8l house was seven miles distant, and when the 

: > haracter of the surface around their farms kept neighbors at a 

dren of the tWO families to find associates among them, save at the district 

1 upon a corner of the Garfield farm, and it was there, when 

• I •.::.' conned his " Noah Webster's Spelling Book," and learned his 

on .is lie was large enough to be of any use. The family was 

I in the fields with the bo\ s. She spun the yarn and wove the 
the neighbors, knit stockings, cooked the simple 

I in t 1 which hung an iron crane for the pot-hooka, helped 

d the oldest boy to clear and fence land. 



FARM-DOT AND BOATMAN. 



In the midst of this toilsome life the brave little woman found time to instil into the minds of her children 
the religious and moral maxims of her New England ancestry. Every day she read fourchaptei 
Bible — a practice sin- keeps up to this time, and has never interrupted for a single day, save when lying 
upon a sick bed. The children lived in an atmosphere of religious thought and discussion. Uncle 
Boy nton, who was a second father to the Garfield family, flavored all his talk with I tations. 

lie carried a Testament in his pocket wherever he went, ami would sit on his plough-beam at the end 
ol" a furrow to take it out and read a chapter. It was a time of religious ferment in northern Ohio. 
.New sects tilled the air with their doctrinal eries. The Disciples, a sect founded by the preaching of 
Alexander Campbell, an eloquent ami devout man <a Scotch descent, w ho ranged ovei Kentucky, Ohio, 
Virginia, and Pennsylvania, from his home .it Bethany, in the •• Pan Handle," had made great pn 
They assailed all creeds, as made lu men. and declared the Bible to he the only rule of life. Attacking 
all the older denominations, they were vigorously attacked in turn. James" mind was tilled at .-.: 

day with the controversies this new s<ct excited. The guests at his mother's house were mostly traveling 

preachers, ami the talk of the neighborhood, when not about the crops and farm labors, was usually on 
religious topics. 

At the district school James was known as a fighting boy. He found that the larger boys were 
disposed to insult and abuse a little fellow who had no father or big brother to protect him, and he 
resented such imposition with all the force ofa sensitive nature, hacked by a hot temper, great physical 
courage, and a strength unusual for his age. His bio- brother Thomas had finished hi- schoolii 
was much away from home, working by the A,i\ or month to earn money lor the support of the family. 
Many stories are told in Orange of the pluck shown by 1 1 1 * - future major-general in his encounters 
with the rough country lads in defence of his bpyish rights and honor. They say he never began a 

fight, and never cherished malice, but when enraged h\ taunts or insults would attack boys of twice his 

size with the fury anil tenacity of a bull-dog. A lew \. ars after the death of his father, the house was 

enlarged in a curious fashion. The log school-house was abandoned for a new frame building, and the 
old structure was bought by Thomas Garfield for a trifle, and he and James, with the help of the 
Boy nton boys, pulled it down and put it up again on a site a few steps m the rear of the G 

dwelling. Thus the family had two rooms, ami were tolerably comfortable, as tar as household . 
modations were concerned. In these two log buildings they lived until James was fourteen, when the 
boys built a small frame house for their mother. It was painted red, and had three rooms below ami 
two under the roof. 

FARM-BOY AND BOATMAN. 

James often got employment, in the haying and harvesting season, from the farmer 
When he was sixteen he walked ten miles to Aurora, in company with a hoy older than himself. 
looking lor work. They offered their services to a farmer who had a good deal of hay to cut. " What 
wages do you expect?" asked the man. "Man's wages — a dollar a day ." replied youi G 
The farmer thought they were not old enough to earn full wages. " Then let us mow that field by the 
acre," said the young man. The fanner agreed : the customary price per acre was fifty cents. I '■ . 
lour o'clock in the afternoon the hay was down, and the boys earned a dollar apiece. Then the farmer 
engaged them lor a fortnight. James' first wages were earned from a merchant who had an ashcry, 
where he leached ashes and made black salts, which were shipped by lake and canal to New York. 
He received $9 a month and his hoard, continuing in the business for two months, at the end of which his 
hair below his cap was bleached and colored by the fumes, until it assumed a lively red hue. Afterward 



GAR} 



ik-umlu-ivil land to clear, <>n the edge 

d. 1 le boarded 

He w - hopper, and easily cut 

red afresh in him the ambition to be a Bailor, which 

i-fights and adventures, in the quiet monot- 

f the lake craft, and with this purpose he walked 

.t the wharf, and told the captain he wanted to hire out as a 

Irunken fellow, was amazed at the impudence of the green country lad, 

quickly as he could from the vessel, the 

S on he heard himself called by name from the deck of a 

Vmos Letcher, who told him be commanded the 

i* him to drive horses on the tow-path. The would-be sailor thought that 

thing of navigation in a humble way, preparatory to renewing his ap- 

pted the oiler and the wages of " ten dollars a month and 

ir Pittsburg with a cargo of copper ore. It was called the " Even- 

nd had a cabin at the bow for the horses and one at the stern for the 

pped at Brier Hill, on the Mahoning River, and loaded 

1 id Tod, afterward governor "i" Ohio, and a warm friend of Garfield, the 

v I boating episode in Garfield's life lasted through the 

After the firsl trip !■> Pittsburg the boat went back and forth between Cleveland and 

and iron. 

driver, who hid riven t.i the post of steersman, was seized with a vio- 

lich kept him at home all winter, and in bed most of the time. All his summer's 

:.d medicines. When he recovered, his mother, who had never ap- 

.1 adventure, dis-uaded him from carrying out his project of shipping on the lakes. 

i .mother — that of study. She brought to her help the district 

tful man named Samuel 1). Bates, who fired the boy's mind with a 

changed the course of his life. 1 le went to tin- < feauga Acad- 
nd began a new career. 

de him to join the church, and when pressed hard stayed away 

entry, he v inted full freedom to reach conclusions about reli- 

. en. and had been two terms at the 

as baptized in Much. 1850, in a little 

mplished by a quiet, sweet-tempered 

■ 1 rarfield homestead, and told in the 

1 . I. A ple\ ioUS perusal of PollO( k'fi 

in upon him and turned his thoughts to religious subj< 

FIGHT FOR AN EDUCATION. 

from going as a Bail 
Free Will Baptist institution in the 
i 11 fields in < I rhe argument which 



FIGHT FOR IV EDUCATION, 

finally turned the robust lad from his cherished plan of adventure was advanced by his mother, and 
that, it' he fitted himself for teaching by n feu terms in school, he could teach winters and sail sumi 
and thus have employment the year round. In the month of March, with $17.00 in his p 
together by his mother and his brother Thomas, James went to ( liam 

and Henry Boynton. The boys took a stock of provisions along, and rented a room with two beds and a 
cook-stove, in an old unpainted house where lived a poor widow woman, who undert their 

meals and do their washing for an absurdly small sum. The academy was building, and 

the school, with about a hundred pupils of both sexes, drawn from the farming country around ( 
was in a flourishing condition. It had a library of perhaps one hundred and fifty volumes — 1 
than young Garfield had ever seen before. A venerable gentlemen named Daniel Branch was principal 
of the school, and his wife was his chief assistant. At the end of the term of twelve weeks he went 
home to Orange, helped his brother build a barn for their mother, and then worked for daj 
haying and harvesting. With the money he earned he paid ofTsome arrears of doctors' bills left from 
his long illness. When he returned to Chester, in the fall, he had one silver sixpence in his pocket. 
Going to church next <\.\x . he dropped the sixpence in the contribution-b 

He had made an arrangement with Heman Woodworth, a carpenter in the village, to live at his 
house, and have lodging, board, washing, fuel, and light for $1.06 a week, and this sum he > 
earn by helping the carpenter on Saturdays and at odd hours on school-days. The carpenterwas build- 
ing a two-story house, and James' first work was to get out siding al I 
urday he planed fifty-one boards, and so earned $1.02, the most money he had 

work. That term he paid his way, bought a few books, and returned home with \ He 

now thought himself competent to teach a countrj school, but in two days' tramping through >. 
County failed to find employment. Some schools had already engaged tea< hers, and ■• 
still a vacancy the trustees thought him too young. He returned home completely di and 

greatly humiliated by the rebuffs he had met with. He made a resolution that he would ne< 
ask for a position of any sort, and the resolution was kept, for ever) public place he has 
come to him unsought. 

Thenexl morning, while still in the depths of despondency, he hear.d a man call to his mother from 
the road. --Widow Gaffield"(a local corrupti G rfield), " where's your boy fim? I 

wonder if he wouldn't like to teach our school at the Ledge." James went out and found a 1 from 

a district a mile away, where the school had been broken up for two winters by the rowdyism • 
boys. He said he would like to try the school, but before deciding must consult his urn 
ton. That evening there was a family council. Uncle Amos pondered over tin- matter, and finally - 
•• You go and try it. You will go into that school as the boj . -Jim < raffield ; ' 
Mr. Garfield, the school-master." The young man mastered the school, after a hard tussle in tl 

loom with the bully of the district, who resented a flogging anil tried to brain the teacher with a bill) 
wood. Ilis wages were $12 a month and board, and he "boarded around" in the families of the pupils. 

lb- had $48 in the spring — more money than had ever been in his p 
returning to Chester he joined the Disciples' Church, and his religious experience, together with his 
new interest in teaching, caused him to abandon his boyhood ambition of be< I' 

his third term at the academy he and his cousin Henry boarded themselves. 

weeks the boys found their expenses tor food had been just }i cents per week apiece. Henry thought 
the\ were living too poorly for good health, and they agreed to increase their outla 

apiece. James had up to this time looked upon a college course as wholly beyond his reach, but he 
met a college graduate who told him ho was mistaken in supposing that only the sons of rich pan 



GARFIEL&S < \REER. 



:i . he said, but it would take a longtime 

ire in preparatory studies, and four in the regular 

g part of the time to earn money he could get through in 

the one purpose of obtaining a college 

erved a hair's-breadth. Until it was accomplished it was the 

The tenacity and single-heartedness with which he clung to it. and 

• erted a powerful influence in moulding and solidifying 

Latin, philosophy, and botany. When the spring term ended he 

igh the summer at haying and carpentering. Next fall he was back 

d in the winter he taught a village school in Warrensville, at $16 per 

immer, he decided to g 1 with lii> education at a new school just 

I . |- tage County, a petty, cross-roads village, twelve miles from a 

. aurally called him to the young institution of his own 

;i. he- arrived at Hiram, and found a plain brick building standing in the 

ips a dozen farm-houses near enough for boarding places for the students. 

ther pupils, studied harder than ever, having now his college project fully 

hed his six books of Caesar that term, and made good progress in Greek. In 

I Warrensville, earning >i s a month. Next spring he was back 

g the summer vacation he helped build a house in the village, planing all the siding 

,1 year at Hiram. Garfield was made a tutor, in phut- of one of the 

vard he taught and studied at the same time, working tremendously 

II - future wife recited to him two years in Greek, and when he wenl 

in the Cleveland schools, and to wait patiently the realization of their hop,-. 

,! studied Latin onl\ six weeks, and had just begun Greek, and was there- 

ur years' preparatory course ordinarily taken b) students 

■nan class. Yet in three years' time he fitted himself to enter the 

• ,1 at the same time earned his own living, thus crowding six 

1 hing for his support at the same time. To accomplish this, he shut the 

that little portion of it within the range of his studies, knowing 

ding no light literature, and engaging in no social recrea- 

-Hl.nt- of Yale, Brown, and Williams, telling what 
,1,1 enter if he passed a satisfactory examination in 

President Hopkins, of Williams, added this 

shall do what we can for you." This 

• \\ illiams. He had been urged to go to 

unded bj Alexander Campbell, but with a wisdom hardlj 

■ nted by the Bethan) s< hool, he 

gland colli 



LIFE I / COLL />,/■. 



LIFE AT COLLEGE. 

When Garfield rea< hed Williams Col I. ;ge, in June, 1854, In- had | -> which '<■■■ 

w hile teaching in tin- I [iram school. With this mone) he hoped to mi 
weeks remained of the closing school-} ear, and In- attended tin- recitations of thi 
to become familiar with the methods of the professors before testing his ability i" p 1 
for the junior \ ear. The examination fa entering the junior class was passed without troul 
self-taught, his knowledge of the books prescribed was thorough. A lone, summei lowedhis 

examination, ami this time hi- employed in the college library, the first lai ks In- had 

ever seen. I lis absorption in the double work of teaching ami fitting himself for 1 
left him little time tin' general reading, ami tin- library opened a new world "t profit ami delight. He 
had never read .1 line of Shakespeare, save a few extracts in tin- school reading-books. I 
whole range of fiction he had voluntarily shut himself off at eighteen, when he joined the church, hav- 
ing serious views of the business of life, and imbibing the notion, then almost universal ai 
people in the country districts of the West, that novel-reading was a waste of time, and therefore a sin- 
ful, worldly sort of intellectual amusement. When turned loose in the college library, witl 
leisure to range at will over its shelves, he began with Shakespeare, which he read thro 1 
to cover. Then he went to English history and poetry. Of the poet-. Tennyson pleased him 
which is not to be wondered at. for the influence of the laureate was then at its height. 

Garfield studied Latin and Greek, and took up German as an elective study. One y< 
lege completed his classical studies, on which he was far advanced before he came to William-. I 

man he carried on successfully, until he Could read Goethe and Schiller readily, and acq diT- 

able fluency in the conversational use of the language, lie entered with zeal into the . 

the school, joined the Philologian Society, was a vigorous debater, ami in hi- was one of the 

editors of The Williams £>iiarlcrly, a college periodical of a high order of merit. 

At the end of the tall term of [854 came a winter vacation of two months, which Garfield em- 
ployed in teaching a writing-school at North Pownal, Vermont. IK' wrote a bold, handsome, legible 
hand, not at all like that in vogue nowadays in the systems taught in the commercial ■ it .1 

hand that was strongly individual, and was the envy of the boys and girls who tried to imitate it in his 
Vermont t lass. It is said that a year or two before Garfield taught his writing-class in tin- North 1 ' 
nal school-house, Chester A. Arthur taught the district school in the same building. 

At the end of the college year, in June. Garfield went back to Ohio and visited his mother, who 
was then living with a daughter, in Solon. I lis m iney w as exhausted, and he had to ad 
plans, either to borrow enough to take him through to graduation at the end of the 1 

teaching in order to earn the monej . and thus break the continuity <>t" his colli _ He then hit 

upon the plan of insuring his life and assigning the polic} as security tor a loan. 11 I 

undertook to furnish the Hinds in installments, but becoming embarrassed was not al nd a 

neighbor, Dr. Robinson, assumed the obligation. Garfield gave hi- note- for the loan, ami 
the transaction as on a lair business basis, knowing that it' he lived he would repa; tie- 11 that 

it' he died his creditor would be secure. 

His second winter vacation was passed in Po< stenkill, New York, a country neighborhood about 
six miles from Troy, where a Disciple minister from Ohio, named S 

he soon organized a writing-school to employ his time and bring him in a little money. 1 ' ally 

Garfield preached in his friend's church. During a visit to Troj he 



GARFIELLTS CAREER. 



• tint city, and was one daj surprised by the offer of a position in 

nd his expectations of what he could earn after his graduation and return to 

•i his life. If he accepted, he could »»>n pay his debts, marry the lady 

live a life of comfort in an attractive Eastern city; but he could not finish 

the ties with his friends in Ohio and with the struggling 

was deeplj attached. Had he taken the position, his whole subsequent 

different. 

m at Williams he made his first political speech, an address before a meeting 

support the nomination of John C. Fremont. Although he had 

- before, he had never voted. The old parties did not interest him; 

: upted with the sin of slavery ; but when a new party arose t" combat the 

. it enlisted hi> earnest sympathies. His mind was free from all biasconcern- 

f the past, and he could equally admire Clay <>r Jackson, Webster or 

• man nominated for the Presidency whose political convictions and activities 

th the birth of the Republican part)'. He was graduated August, 1856, with a class honor 

dent Hopkins, and highl) esteemed in the college — that of metaphysics — reading 

~ 1 n and tin- Unseen." 








CHAPTER II 



TEACHER AND PREACHER 





* 

^pEFORE Garfield graduated at Williams College the ti the Hiram ] fitute 

elected him teacher of ancient languages, and the post was ready for him as soon as he 
returned to Ohio. It was not a professorship, because the institution w.is n .and 

did not become one until 1869, long after his connection with it ceased. \ . when 

1 onl) twenty-six years old, he was placed at the head of the scl I, with the tith ( 

man of the Board of Instruction, the board waiting another year bel erring upon 

him the full honors of the principalship. He continued to hold the position of principal 
until he went into the army, in [861. He was nominal principal two y< r, the 

board hoping he would return and manage the school after the war ended. When he went 
to Congress he was made advising principal and lecturer, and his name was borne upon 
the catalogues in this capacity until [864. 

Before he went to college, Garfield had begun to preach a little in the country chun 
1 liram, and w hen he returned he began to fill the pulpit in the 1 >isciples' Church in I [iram n ith coi 
erable regularity. In his denomination no ordination is required to become a mil 
having the ability to discourse ..n religious topics to a congregation is welcomed to the pulpit. His fame 
as a lay preacher extended throughout the counties of Portage, Summit, Trumbull, ' . rid he 

was often invited to preach in the towns of that region. 

One of his former pupils says of his peculiarities a- a teacher: 

•• No matter how old the pupils were, Garfield always called us by our first nanus, and kept him- 
self on the most familiar terms with all. lie played with us freely, scuffled with us sometin 
with us in walking to and fro. and we treated him. out of the class-room, just ah 
Yet he was a most strict disciplinarian, and enforced the rules like a martinet. If 
tionate and confiding manner with respect for order in a most successful manner. If he ■• 
to a pupil, either for reproof or approbation, he would generally manage I irm around him and 

draw him close up to him. lie had a peculiar way of shaking hand ir arm and 

drawing you right up to him. This sympathetic manner has helped him I mi nt. When I 

janitor he used sometimes to stop me and ask my ..pinion about this and that, 

with me. I can see that my opinion could not have been of any value, and that he probably asked me 
partly to increase my self-respect and parti} to show me that he felt an interest in p. 
his friend all the tinner tor it." 



, \RFJELUS CAREER. 



ENTRANCE INTO POLITICS. 

mont, hisown political career thus beginning with 

publican party. Before leaving Williams College he made a speech 

laver) in the territories, and during the fall, after he returned to 

( lurch, in reph to Alphonso Hart, of Ravenna, who had delivered a 

rhen a j« »int debate \\ as arranged at Garrets> ille, betw een 

deal of local attention, and is well remembered to this daj b) 

.-. debate launched Garfield as .1 political speaker. His repu- 

idil) from that debate, until it embraced first the State of Ohio and 

• the Hiram school Garfield married Lucretia Rudolph, his fellow- 

trs, to whom he had engaged himself before he went to Williams College. 

: time and absence, and now that he hadmade his place in the world and 

a family, there was nothing to hinder its consummation. The marriage took 

the bride's parents, November it. t8« 

11 the stump, beginning in 1856, with perhaps a score of speeches for Fremont and 

- and town halls in the region around Hiram, were extended in 1857 and 

[859 he began to speak at county mass-meetings. His first 

\kp.n. where his name was put upon the bills below that of Salmon 

ing teacher met for the first time the great anti-slavery leader whom he had 

Imired from his boyhood, and a friendship sprang up between the two which endured 

ith. 

nt to Columbus, and took his seat in tin- State Senate. The campaign ol 

throughout the State. He found time to read law assiduously while he 

made up his mind that his future career should be at the bar. He 

.1 law student in the office of Williamson & Riddle, in Cleveland, and 

ks to be studied. In [861 he applied to the Supreme Court in 

to the bar, was examined b\ a committee composed ol Thomas M. Key, a 

( nnati, and Robert Harrison, afterward a member of the Supreme Court 

dmitted. His intention was to open an office in Cleveland, but the breaking out 

HIS RECORD IN THE WAR. 

General Garfield's militan career is found in 

II li was written man) Garfield's nomination for the 

nt, for appointing the officers for the Ohio troops, the 

ention of entering the service, lie was 

nd Ohio Regiment, but it was not until the 14th ol 

I imenl w.is then Be nt to Callettsburg, Ky., 

< . ., ral Buell. ( to the 17th oi 

immand ol nteenth Brigade, and ordered him 

' nd} Valley, in Eastern Kentucky. I p to 



HIS REi ORD I V THE WAR. 15 



this date no active operations had been attempted in the great department that laj south of thi 

River. The spell of Bull Run still hung over our armii - the campaigns in Western Virgii 

the unfortunate attack by General Grant at Belmont, not a singli .ill the 

region between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi. General Buell was preparing to advance upon the 

rebel position at Bowling Green, when he suddenly found himself hampered by tv 

skillfully planted within striking distance of his flank. General Zollicoffei was ». 

berland Gap toward Mill Spring; and Humphrey Marshall, moving down the Sandy \ 

threatening to overrun Eastern Kentucky. Till these could be driven back, an advan Bowling 

Green would be perilous, if not actually impossible. To Gen. George II. Thomas, then jusi raisi 

his colonelcj of regulars to a brigadier-generalship of volunteers, was committed the task of repulsing 

ZollicofTer; to the untried colonel of the raw Forty-second Ohio, the task of repulsing Hui 

shall : and on their success the whole army of the department waited. 

Colonel Garfield thus found himself, before he had ever seen a gun tired in action, in command 
of four regiments of infantry, and some eight companies "f cavalry, charged with the work of driving 
out of his native State the officer reputed the ablest of those not educated t< ■ war. whoi k\ had 

given to the Rebellion. Marshall had under his command nearlj 5,000 men. stationed at the vil 
Paintville, sixty miles up the Sandy Valley. He was expected by the rebel authorities to advance 
toward Lexington, unite with ZollicofTer, and establish the authority <>r the Provisioi G 
the State capital. These hopes were fed by the recollection of his great intellectual abilities, and the 
soldierly reputation he had borne ever since he led the fan .;<■ of the Kentuck) Volunti 

Buena Vista. Bui Garfield won the day. Marshall hastily abandoned his position, tired hi 
equipage and stores, and began a retreat which was not ended till he had reached Abingdon, \ 
A fresh peril, however, now beset the little force. An unusually violent rain-storm broke out, the 
mountain gorges were all flooded, and the Sandy rose to such a height that steamboat men ■ 
it impossible to ascend the stream with supplies. The troops were almost out of rations, and the 
mountainous country was incapable of supporting them. Colonel Garfield had gone down the 1 
its mouth. 1 le ordered a small steamer w hich had been in the quartermastl to take on a load 

of supplies and start up. The captain declared it was impossible. Efforts were made to gel otl 
sels. but w ithout success. 

Finally Colonel Garfield ordered the captain and crew on board, stationed a l army 

officer on deck to see that the captain did his duty, and himself took the wheel. Th< -11 pro- 

tested thai no bo,u could possibly stem the raging current, but Garfield turned her head up the 
and began the perilous trip. The water in the usually shallow river was sixt) | 
tops along the bank were almost submerged. The little vessel trembled from st ( • 
tion of the engines; the waters whirled her about as if she were a skill': and the utmost speed thai 
could give her was three miles an hour. When night tell the captain of the boal 
tie up. To attempt ascending that flood in the dark. : ■:. was madness. Bui ^ I i 

kept his place at the wheel. Finally, in one of the sudden bends of the river, they drove, witl 
head of steam, into the quicksand of the bank. E\ ery effort to back off was in vain. Garfield 
ordered a boat to be lowered, to take a line the opposite bank. The . 

venturing out in the flood. The Colonel leaped into the bo, n himself and si 

the current carried them tar below the point they sought to reach : but they finally d in making 

fast to a tree and rigging ,1 windlass with rails sufficiently powerful to draw the vessel off and get her 
once more a 

It was on Saturday that the boat left the mouth of the Sandy. All night, all day Sunday, and 



■ h'F //:/./>■ S CAREER. 



kept up thi . .'• with the current, Garfield leaving the wheel only 

nd that during the day. I5y nine o'clock Monday morning they 

d with tumultuous cheering. Garfield himself could scarcel) escape 

lie shoulders of the delighted men. 

the Sandy Valley had been conducted with such energy and >k ill as to receive 

ation of tlu- command al and of the Government. General Buell had been 

I • \\ ar Department had conferred the grade of brigadier-gen- 

ng the date of the battle of Middle Creek. And the country, without under- 

I the campaign — of which, indeed, no satisfactory account was published 

ated the satisfactory result. The discomfiture of Humphre) Marshall was a 

to the rebel sympathizers of Kentucky, and of amazement and admiration 

• tin- loval West, and Garfield took rank in the public estimation among the most promising ol 

r volunteei 

Louisville from the Sandy Valley, General Garfield found that the Army of the 

dy beyond Nashville, on it-- march t" Grant's aid at Pittsburg Landing. He hastened 

1 al Buell about thirty miles south of Columbia, and, under his order, at once 

mil of the Twentieth Brigade, then a part of the division under Gen. Thomas J. Wood. 

.1 the field of Pittsburg Landing about one o'clock on th>' second day of the battle, and partici- 

The "Id tendency i" fever and ague, contracted in the days of his tow-path service on the Ohio 
>. _ ravated in the malarious climate of the South', and General Garfield was finally sent 

iboul tin- first of August. Near the same time the Secretary of War. wh i seems at 
da) t<> have formed the high estimate of Garfield which he continued t" entertain throughout 
to him to proceed to Cumberland Gap and relieve Gen. George W. Morgan of 
and. But when they wen- received he was too ill t<> Leave his bed. A m >nth lain- tin- Secre- 
■ il him tip report in person at Washington, as soon as his health would permit. < ta his arrival 
nd that tin- estimate placed on his knowledge of law, his judgment, and his loyalt) had led to 
i' the first members of the court-martial for the noted trial of Fitz John Porter. In 
I with this detail most of the autumn was consumed. Early in January he was ordered 
! rom the day of his appointment, General Garfield became the intimate 
ntial adviser of his chief. But he did not occupy so commanding a station as to be 
.tint upon him. From the Lth of January to the 24th of June General Rosecrans la) at 
■ months of this dela) General Garfield was with him. The War Depart- 
nd, when the spring opened, urged it with unusual vehemence. Finally, 
I) asked his 1 orps, di\ ision, and ca> airy generals as t , the propriety of a m we- 
ir unanimit) .though for diverse reasons, the) opposed it. Out of seventeen gener- 
i an immediate advance, and not one was even willing to put himself on record 

1 < 1. 11 Held collated the seventeen letters sent in from the ^enei- 

commander, and fairly reported their Bubstance, coupled with a 

and in favorof an immediate movement. This report we venture to pro- 

•. mi nt known to have been submitted by a chief of staff to his superior 

G G lutely alone, eneral commanding troops having, as 

d or Tailed to appro ,• ,m advance. But his statements wen- so char. 
• miction. 
eport the army moved — to the great dissatisfaction ol 



SERVICE IX COA GRl S - 

its leading generals. One of the three corps ( manders, M G I 

proached the chief of staff al the headquarters on the morning ol the advam ■ >• It 
he said, •• In the general officers of the army, that this movement is your work. ! under- 

stand that it is a rash and fatal move, for which you will be held r< ! 

move was the Tullahoma campaign a campaign perfect in its conception, excellent 
cution, and onlj hindered from resulting in the complete destruction of the • ; 
which h.ul too long postponed it- commencement. It might even yet 
terrible season ol rains which set in on the morning of the advance and i m tinned uninl< 
greater pan of a month. With a week's earlier start it would have ended th< 
the \\ ar. 

At last came the battle of Chit kamauga. Su< h In this time had come to G 
that he was nearlj always consulted, and often followed. He w 
onl\ excepted. This he did rareh as an amanuensis, but rathei onthi 
afterward submitting what he had prepared to Rosecrans for approval or change. Tin 
he did not write was the fatal ordei to Wood, which lost the haul.-. The meaning 
words, however, did nol clearly represent what Rosecrans meant, and the division comm 
so interpreted them as to destroy the right wing. The general commanding and his ■ 
caught in the tide of disaster and borne back tow ard Chattanooga. The chief ol 

municate with Thomas, while the general proceeded to prepare for the n armv. 

Such, at least, were the statements of the reports, and, in a technical 
never be forgotten, however, in Garfield's praise, that it was on his own tarn. 
he was sent — that, in fact, he rather procured permissioi I anas, and 

battle, than received orders to do so. He refused to believe that Thon 
He found the read environed with dangers; some of his escort wen- killed, and I 
escaped death or capture. But he b ire to Thomas the first news that officer had - 
"ii tin- right, and gave the information on which he was able I 
o'clock that evening, under the personal supervision of Gen. Gordon G 
salute from .1 batten of six Napoleon guns Was tired into the woods aft* 
assailants. The} were the last shots of the battle of Chickamauga, and what was 
was master of the field. For the time, the enemy evidentlj regarded himself as repulsi 1 

said that night, and has always since maintained, that there was no necessity for the immi 
on Ross\ ille. 

SERVICE IN CONGRESS. 

Practically, this was the close of General Garfield's militarj carei 1 \ 

absent in the army, and without am solicitation on his part, hi' had been eli 

old Giddings district, in which he resided, lie was n iw, after a few w 

Chattanooga, sent on to Washington as the bearer of dispatches. He then 

a major-generalship of volunteers, "for gallant and meritorious condu I 

lie might have retained this position in the army: and the militan capacity he had display) 

favor in which he was held In the Government, and the certaintj of ment to im| 

mands, seemed to augur a brilliant future. He was a poor man, too, -^u\ tl ry was 

more than double that of the congressman. But on mature reflection he decided thai I 

under which the people had elected him to Congress bound him to an effort to obey their wishes. He 

3 



G \RFIELLfS CAREER. 



v by officers of the army, who looked t>> him for aiii in procur- 

ts the country and the arm) required. Under the belief that the path <>t 

intrj la\ in the direction in which his c mstituents pointed, he sacrificed what seemed 

sts, and on the 5th "f I >ecember, 1863, resigned his commission, after nearh t\\<> 

mtinued his military Bervice up to the daj of the meeting "f Congress. Even 

ihen - \ thought of resigning his position ;iv a Representative rather than his major-general's 

.1 would have done so had not Lincoln urged him to enter Congress. He has often 

I thai he did not fight the war through. Hail he done bo he would no doubt have ranked 

fon most of the victorious generals of the Republic, for he displayed, in hi- Sandy 

..■1 and at the battle of Chickamauga, the highest qualities of generalship. A brilliant 

1 him in the Anrn <if the Cumberland. General Thomas wanted him t" take command 

Mt Lincoln told him he greatly needed the influence in the House ol one who had 

deal military experience, t.> push through the needed war legislation. He yielded, and on the 

I 1 e up his generalship and took his seat in the House. 

11. was appointed on the Military Committee, under the chairmanship of General Schenck, and 
in carrying through the measures which recruited the armies during the closing 
1 the war. 

In the summer of 1864 a breach occurred between the President and some of the most radical ol 

Republican leaders in c over the question of the reconstruction of the states of Arkansas and 

>. ss passed a bill providing for the organization of loj al governments \\ ithin the Union 

. but Lincoln vetoed it and appointed military governors. Senator Ben Wade, ol 

tat vi Henry Winter Davis, of Maryland, united, in a letter t<i the New York 

sharply criticising the President for defeating the will < 't" Congress. This Utter be< a me known as 

manifesto, and created a great sensation in political circles. 'The ston <j,<<i about in the 

General Garfield had expressed" sympathy with the position of Wade and Davis. 

demned the document, and were strongl) disposed to set him aside and nominate 

When the convention met. the feeling against Garfield was so pronounced 

that d hi- renomination as hopeless, lie was called up m to explain his course. He went 

platform, and everybod) expected something in the nature of an apology, but he boldly 

. approved the manifesto, justified Wade, and -aid he had nothing t" retract, and 

1 mvictions for the sake of a -eat in Congress, lie hail great respect, he 

nstituents, but greater regard for his own. It he could serve them as an 

ng "ii his <>wn judgment and conscience, he would be glad t" do so, but ii 

their nomination ; he would prefer to be an independent private citizen. Probablj 

in that wa\ before or since to a body of men who held hi- political fate in their 

g the pi. itt. .1111. he Strode OUt of the hall and down tin- -tail'-, supposing that he had 

iad he disappeared when one of the youngest delegates sprang 

man who I .mention like that deserves a nomination. I 

.1 be nominated In acclamation." The motion was carried with a shout that 

-man. and arrested him on the sidewalk a- he w.i- returning to the hotel. 

■ \ elve thousand. 
• the Thirty-ninth Congress, in December, 1865, General Garfield asked 
. i Milii \il.iii- to that ol Ways and Means, 

ipy the attention of the < ountry, and hedet 



I / ./: \DER I \ II \ LYCE, 



to be in a position to study them carefully in advance. The Military Comni 

work of reorganizing the regular armj on .1 peace basis, was the more imp 

but Garfield foresaw the Btorm of agitation and delusion concerning the debl and 

soon to break upon the country, and wisel) prepared t" meet it. II. begai .. 

of study, ransacking the Congressional Librarj for works that threw li^l 

countries, and that gave the ideas "i the thinkers and statesmen of .ill nadons on tl Ilia 

membership <>t" the \V;i\ s and Means also opened up a line of congenial work in c< 

and the sy >u-m ut' internal revenue taxation. These two sourci - 

war, had to be changed t<> conform to the conditions of peace. In the course of th 

ligations which accompanied it. he reached a conclusion upon the tariff q i i which Ik 

departed — namely, that whatever may be the truth or falsit) "f abstract thi 

interests of tin- Unjted States require a moderate protective system. In March, ; - 

speech mi tin- currency question, ami took strong ground in favor 1} return v 

In tin- summer of 1867 General Garfield went to Europe, and madi 
Britain and the continent. His health failed under the pressure of too much brain- w 
this means of recuperating. This was tin- only year since In- entered public life thai hi 
from a political campaign. He returned late in the fall to find that Pendli 
payment of the bonded debt in irredeemable greenback notes — had run rampant in Oh 
possession of the Republican party as well as of the Democracy. A reception • 
son. in his district, which assumed the form of a public meeting. He was told I 
nothing about his financial views, for his constituents had made up their minds that the 
redeemed in greenbacks. I le made a speech, in which he told his friends plainh that thi 
that then' could be no honest money not redeemable in coin, and no honest pa\ mi 
made save in coin, and that as long as he was their representative he should stand on I 
ever might be their views. The speech produced a deep impression throughout the d. 
June the National Republican Convention took sound ground upon the debt and curie- 
most Republicans who had been carried awa\ by Pendletonism grew ashamed of their folly. 

A LEADER IN FINANCE. 

In the Fortieth Congress General Garfield was put back upon the Militant Committi 
its chairman. In [868 he was renominated without opposition, and 1 
district. On the organization of the Forty-first Congress, in December, 
made chairman of tin- Committee on Banking and Currency . Th.- infl 
ering force in the country, and men of both parties in *. ' into it b> I 

stituents. A cry was set up that times wen- getting hard because there was not 1 
business of the people. 'The West, particularly, clamored i..r more cut 
opposition to inflation. Finally, after a long fight in his committee with the men wh 
out a flood of new greenbacks, he brought in and carried througl ( 
of $54,000,000 to the national bank circulation, and giving prel 

issue to the states which had less than their quota of the old circulation. T inning 

blow to the inflation movement. The new issue was not all taken up I all that 

time it was a sufficient answer to all demands for ••more mot 
there was currency waiting in the Treasury tor any one who would org 



f, l/tFIELD'S < l/.7.7:7,\ 

itional banking was made perfect!) free. The New York gold panic came 

manship of the Banking Committee. Under orders of the House, he con- 

. and thoi gation which exposed all the secrets of the gold 

.iin "Black Friday." llrin.uk- a report which \\.t> .1 complete historj ol 

from it was that the onl) certain remedy against the recurrence ol such 

. .1 in tin- resumption of specie payments. He became the recognized leader "i 

:t\ in the House, and the m st potent single factor in the opposition to inflation. 

He the bill t<> strengthen the public credit, which failed to >, r ci through during the clos- 

but was 1 I ' int came in, and was the iir>t meas- 

sident put his signature. This bill committed Congress fully to the payment >>i 

is the fortress around which the financial battle raged in subsequent years. 

G G rfield was placed at the head of the important Committee >>ii 

\ hich made him the leader of the majorit) side "i the 1 louse. \A ith his « • 1 *.l habit 

he undertook \sith the utmost thoroughness, he made a laborious study of the whole 

don bills in this country and of the English budget system. He found a great deal 

in the practice concerning estimates and appropriations. I nexpended balances 

. amounting i<>$i ;o. 000.000. beyond tin- supervision of Congress, and subject 

rnment officers. There were, besides, what were called permanent appropriations, 

without an) legislation. Garfield instituted a sweeping reform. Hi 

Id balances back into the Treasury, making all appropriations expire at the 

for which made, unless needed to cany out contracts, and covering in all appropria- 

Vt the same time he required the executive departments to itemize 

mone) needed to run the Government much more fully than had been done before, 

ild kn..\\ just how ever) dollar it voted ».b to be expended. The four years ol his 

• approprial years of close and unremitting labor. Hew irked habitually fifteen 

In addition to the demands of his <>\\n department of legislation, he took part in all the 

ading part in all the debates involving the principles of the Republi- 

_ -a without . brave battle against inflation and repudiation, and omitted no oppor- 

the public mind to a comprehension of the importance of returning to s] 

• Ul been chosen to represent the old Giddings district without serious 
nd without a breath of suspicion being cast upon his personal integrity, 
minations hail been made b) acclamation. In his sixth canvass, however, 
upon him. A concerted attack was made upon him for the purpose, it possi- 
nvention. and, failing in that, to beat him at the polls. He was charged 
• n in connection with the Credit Mobilier affair and the De Golyer pavement 
the salary-grab. His people, however, resented the slanders, and 
; b) a majorit) of three t" one. The opposition to him iliil nut bring 
it blank votes. His enemies then nominated a second Republican 
met the ch nst him before the jun of his constituents. He vis- 

ami nighl at township mi The verdict of the election 

ti r and actions, and in 1876 and 1878 his constituents nominated 
d him by in< reased majoril 



II IAD/ VG THE MIXORI1 l\ 



HEADING THE MINORITY. 

The result ol the elections of 1874 w 
December, 1875. Hitherto the legislative wort 
called upon to defend this work against the assault 
accomplishment, and which by the aid of the solid 

in Congress. One of the first movements of the D Mr. H 

offered an amendment to their bill, excluding I 
the treatment <>i" prisoners "t" war. opened by Blaim 
charging that Confederates had been starved in N irthern pris 
to Hill. Garfield, by a brilliant stroke of parliamentary 
falsity of Hill'- charge. He -aid that tin- Elmira, N. V'., 
principal prison for captured rebels, was represented in the II 
him, hut he was willing t" rest hi- ly on his te 

Elmira t.. inform the House whether the g 

soldiers in their midst to suffer for want of food. 'I'm- gentleman I 
said that to his knowledge the prisoners had 
guarding them. While this statement was being n 
Garfield. Holding it up, he said: "The lightnings ■■!' hi 
dispatch was from General El well, of Cleveland, who had been thi 
and who telegraphed that the rations issued to the rebel : 
the same as those issued to their guards. Garfield's speech killed tl 
it rather than risk a vote. Mr. Blaine's transfer to the S n after this 

gnized leader of the Republicans in the House. Mr. Kerr, the D 
midst of his term, and in the election for hi- su 

lican \ote. Soon alter, in August, 1 s ;' 1 . came the dispute with Lamar, 
the Democrats had. and was selected by them to make a ke 
attack upon the Republican party, an appeal for sympatl 
to show that peace and prosperity could come only through 1' 
note- ot" the speech. All hi- colleagues insisted that hi 
Lamar'- masterly effort. Thi- speech i- usually account 
in the House. All business was suspended for ten minul 
ment. One hundred thousand copies of tl 
to circulate it in their districts, and during the camp 
tributed powerfully to the success of the Republican part} in the president 

After the election arose the dispute about the Count of tl S ( 

Louisiana. President Grant telegraphed to General Garfield, undei 

■• I would be gratified it" you would go to New -i until thi 

counted. Governor Kellogg requests that reliable « 
a fair one. 

Garfield went to Washington, consulted with 
in company with John Sherman. Stanley Matthew 
While on his way back to Washington, returning fi 
unanimous vote of the Republicans of the 1! 



G 1 /,'/// ID'S < \REER. 



! ctoral Commission bill, but in spite of his opposition, when the 
bill passed he v d as a member of the tribunal. The Republicans of the House were to have 

l ) met in caucus, and were about to ballot, when Mr. McCreary, of Iowa, said that 
ame on which they were all agreed, and which need not be submitted to the formality 
thai of fames A. Garfield. Garfield was chosen by acclamation. The second commissioner 
\| 55 ichusetts, who afterward presided over the Chicago Convention which nom- 
G eral G irfield for the Presidency. As a member of the Electoral Commission, General Gar- 
field delivered two opinions, in which he brought out with great clearness tin- p tint that the C institution 
- in the hands of the legislatures of the States tin- power of determining how their electors shall be 
nd I ( - had no right to go ln-hind the final decision <>i a Stat.-. If there was nothing 

in tin- Constitution or law- of a State touching the matter, its legislature could appoint electors, a- Wa- 
ul done after her admission to tin- Union. 

Immediately after President Hayes' inauguration the Republicans in the Ohio Legislature desired 

General Garfield to the United States Senate in place of John Sherman, who had resigned his 

ter tin- Cabinet. Mr. Hayes made a personal appeal to him to decline to In- a candidate ami 

remain in the I louse to lead the Republicans in support of the administration. General Garfield acceded, 

in the belief that his services would he of more value to the partj in the House than in the Senate, and 
withdrew his name from the canvass, greatly to the disappointment of his friends in Ohio, who hail 
idy obtained pledges of the support of a large majority of the Republican members oi the Legislature. 
In the session "t" i s ;^- ( " neral Garfield led the long struggle in defence of the Resumption act, 
which was assailed In the Democrats with a vigor born of desperation. He also made a remarkable 
h on the tariff question, in opposition to Wood's hill, which sought to break down the protective sys- 
tem. During tin- extra session of [879, forced by the Democrats for the purpose oi bringing the issue 
of the repeal of tin- Federal election law s prominently before the country . < reneral Garfield led the Repub- 
minority with consummate tact and judgment. The plan of the Democrats was to open the debate 
with a general attack on the Republican party, in order to throw their adversaries upon the defensive as 
apologists for the course <>l their part} . McMahon, of Ohio, w as selected to make the opening speech. 

■ Id did not wait lor him to make his argument, but. securing the il ahead oi him. delivered his 

1 .t iii' lution in Congress" speech, in which he attacked the Democrats with such vigor, and 
with so much force their scheme lor withholding appropriations for the support oi the Govern- 
mpel the President to sign their political measures, that they wen- thrown into confusion, and 
taking the offensive, were obliged to resort to a weak, defensivi n. Driven fr posi- 

tion to position l>\ successive vetoes and h\ the persistent assaults of the Republican minority, they ended 
with a ridiculous fiasco. Instead of refusing $45,000,000 of appropriations, as threatened at the begin- 
. they ended by appropriating $44.1 the amount, leaving only $400,000 unprovided for. 

following winter the Democrats recommenced the fight, but in a feeble, disheartened way. The} 
. all pa) to the United States .Marshals unless the President would ret them wipe out the 
lion laws. Garfield met them with a powerful speech on "Nullification in Congress," in 

ved that, while il was clearl) the foremosl duty of the law-makers in Congress to obey . the 
in an attempt to disobey them and break them down. Gem G rfield's 
port on the Tucker Tariff bill. In fanuary, t88o, he was chosen to the 
• Ohio for the term of six years, beginning March |. [881. He received the 
..- Republican caucus, an honor never before conferred upon a citizen oi Ohio by 




CHAPTER III. 




NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENT. 

ENERAL GARFIELD went to the Republican National Convention at Chii 
delegate-at-large from the State of Ohio. His great experience and prominei 
national politics made him very naturally the leader of the delegation. Ohio had 
to present the name of Secretary Sherman to the convention as its candidal 
dent. His speech, presenting Sherman's name, was universally applauded .1- .1 model 
of dignified oratory, and as a timely effort to prevent the sharp differences ol feeling in 
the convention from weakening the party in the approaching campaign. Hi 
speeches before the convention during its long and turbulent session, were all couched 
in the same vein of wise moderation, while adhering firmly to the principle of district 
representation and the right of eveiy individual delegate to cast his own 
When the balloting began, a single delegate from Pennsylvania voted for Garfield. No attention 
was paid to this vote, which was thought to be a mere eccentricit) on the part of the man who 1.1st it. 
Later on a second Pennsylvania delegate joined the solitary Garfield man. So the balloting continued, 
the fight being a triangular one between Grant, Blaine, and Sherman, with Washburne, Edmunds, and 
Windom in the field, ready for possible compromises. General Garfield's plan, as the leader of the 
Sherman forces, was to keep his candidate steadily in the field, in the belief that in the end the 
Blaine men. seeing the impossibility of the success of their favorite, would come over to Sherman, and thus 
secure his nomination. After a whole day's voting, however, it became plain that a union ,,f | 
and Sherman forces in favor of Sherman could not be effected, and that an attempt in that direction 
would throw enough additional votes to Grant to give him the victor}*. Some unsuccessful < fl 
made on the second day's voting to rally on Edmunds and Washburne. Finally, on the thirtv-fourth 
ballot, the Wisconsin men determined to make an effort in an entirely new direction to break the d 
lock. They threw their seventeen votes lor Garfield. General Garfield sprang to hi- f< ■ 
against this proceeding, making the point of order that nobody had a right t iny membi 

the convention without his consent, and that consent, he said, " I refuse to gi\ ,■." T . declared 

that the point of order was not well taken, and ordered the Wis< insin \ I 
ballot nearly the whole Indiana delegation swung over to Garfield, and a I 

changed to him from other states, making a total of fift} votes cast for him in all. N one plain 

that, by a happy inspiration, a way out of the difficulty had been found. On the thirty-sixth ballot. 
stale after state swung over to Garfield, amid intensi nt, and he was nominated by t ! 

ingvote: Garfield, 399; Grant, 306; Sherman..;: Washburne. 5. The nomination w; I on 



GARF/ELETS < UtEEE. 

. and both the friends and opponents of General Garfield vied 

• :n with which they indorsed it. C ingraiulations p lured in from all parts 

c • ■ his farm in Ohio, General Garfield was the recipient ol 

and railroad station. 

Gei G rfield was a frequent platform speaker on topics con- 

nce. In i s 7 s he delivered a notable address in Faneuil 

In i^7( he delivered six lectures on - icial science at Hiram Col- 

the American Social Science Association, in 

In lati oal contributor to the pages of The Atlantic Monthly and 



HOME AND FAMILY LIFE. 

d Garfield's married life were passed in Hiram, boarding with families 

• until he went to the war that he saved money enough to buy a home. In 

.11 frame cottage facing the col a, paying for it $800. About $1,000 

ng it b\ a wing, and fitting it up. The rooms wen- small and the ceilings 

■n in villag 1 moderate pretensions, but the young housewife soon made 

and home-like. This was the only home of the family for many years. While in 

w they lived in apartments. The lack of a settled home at the Capital, where the children 

influences, «;i" seriously felt early in General Garfield's c ingressional 

I until he had been three times elected that he began to regard that career as likely 

an indefinite period, and sought the means of escaping from tin- disagreeable features ,,1 

life. He bought a lot on the corner of Thirteenth and I streets, facing Frank- 

. with mone) loaned him by an old army friend, put up a plain, square, substantial brick 

commodate his family and two orthree guests. As tin- boys grew older, how- 

for their activities than a citj house could afford, the desire to own a farm 

5 felt, increased upon him. When he paid oil" the mortgage on his house and had a 

luld gratify his desire, and after a good deal of thought about locali- 

■ in the vicinity of the Lake Shore Railroad, on one of the handsome, productive 

\ farm ol' [60 acres was bought in the town of Mentor, Lake 

Iway and telegraph station, and half a mile from a post-office. 'The buildings 

:i barn and an ancient farm-house a Btorj and a half high : but the land was fer- 

from the neighboring lake, was delightful, and the people 

be found in Ohio. Here the General revived all the 

e plough or loading the haj wagon, or driving the ox team. 

■ d all the money the place brought in. and the time 

all the members of the household, and ever) winter the) 1 >"ked 
and their release from Washington with pleasant anticipations. 
1 , G hildren, and live are living. The oldest, Mary, died when he 

lied in Washington about four 3 of the surviv- 

mes, Molly. Irwin 1 named after General 
paring foi Si Paul's S< ho .1. in >. 

family and [days the piano well. James, who more 



CANDIDA 1 1: A.YD PRESIDl 



resembles his father, is the mathematician. Molly, a ha 
pered, vivacious, and blessed with perfect health. T 
animal life. All the children have quick brains, and an 
voting except Abe. who, hearing that his father had ye 
child of his should b read until I 

and declined to learn his letters until he hail reached that 

The manner of Hie in the Garfield household, whether in V. 
simple and quiet. The long table was bountifully supplied with plain: 
always room lor any guest who might drop in at meal-time, 
was no effort at following fashions in furniture or table service. \ 

but on the farm there were vehicles of vai ' 

and order prevailed, without the least attempt at keeping up with stj 
to sacrifice the healthful regularity of household custom- adopted b 
tion, to the artificial usages of what is called good society. 

CANDIDATE AND PRESIDENT. 

General Garfield's conduct during the campaig He 

remained upon his farm in Mentor, receiving all wh 

expressing with clearness and dignity his views on the main lii A 

series of extemporary speeches, made to various 

classe> of people which called upon him. gave new proof of the '■ 

and his patriotic impulses. All the- s added to his popularity. In; 

had usually been bridled by their friends they would injure th< 

allowed no one to be the judge of when he should speak, or what hi 

from the day of his nomination to that of his el 

lend reunions of his old army comrades, and 
with the leaders of the Republican party. Tl the time hi 

the campaign many thousands of people, n 

After his election, of which, by the way. he never had 
farm-house until the time came for his journej to \\ 
importunity in regard to his Cabinet app lintm :nts, but thi 
and unselfish, and the importunities he b .re with h - 
action he made up his Cabinet to suit hims 
approved by the public. 

The administration began with the hearty - 

The President's inaugural was an admirabli 
courageous and patriotic. I lis bearing and behavior in the 1 
know led _ rnment, and conception of the 

measure of the highest requirements 

dent. Xo one ever came to the presidential chair before him 
and public affairs. All went smoothly until the unhappy i 

New York. In that controversy President Garfield I If with firmness and d 

right to make appointments in New Y nd he quietly and unyield 



GARFIELD'S < AREER. 



sustained him by a unanimous vote after the resignation of the 
pie stood by him with almost equal unanimity. 

est attention to his duties. The little time he took for rest was 

et) of a few friends. He gave the customary receptions, 

but I , display. He was serious and sad. The -dice which had come 

; . ...... possibility and a heavy burden. If he ever thought it 

: he did not -peak on the subject. He was a brave man who had laced death 

d lie was not, like timorous persons, in the habit of dwelling upon possible 

thoroughly a man of the people, and so firm a believer in the orderly working ol 

tblican institutions in this country, that he suspected no danger to himself from freely mingling 

N% ith v, lu- left the White House he went like an ordinary citizen, and no effort was made 

He went • mch with his family and a single officer; he returned 

ipanied by one friend only. A little precaution would have saved him from the 

sin's bullet, but nobody thought precaution necessary. 

Pi G field passed at Long Branch the rapid recovery of his wife from 

and his own comparative rest from official work, produced a marked effect upon 
him. He spoke of his excellent physical health, and talked cheerfully of having got through with the 
train likely to come upon him during his administration. Much of his old, hearty, genial, 
frank manner, of which the cares of office had seemed to be robbing him, came back in his intercourse 
with his friends. He showed much pleasure at the mar prospect of revisiting the scenes of his college- 
life in Williamsfo ■ • Mass., and promised himself the delight of revivingold memories with his class- 
d being for a little time in thought a boy again. His habitual mental state of late was. how- 
ivity. A friend who s.i» him at this time said to him: "1 saw the roof of your 
r day, while traveling on the Lake Shore Railroad." ••! wish I could see it again," 
replied th< in a solemn tone of vice, as if he felt for the moment that he was destined never 

home that was so dear to him. 








y ^ 



CHAPTER IV 



THE ASSASSINATION AND STRUGGLE FOR I. 111.. 




HISTORY OF Till. CASE « H THE PATIENT KROM Till: I » V ^ II! WAS 
HIS RELAPSES DESCRIPTION OK HIE OPERA 

;'■■_ , —Till". LAS! DAYS, AND I 111 END I 111 UTI 

RESIDENT GARFIELD was shot by Charles J. •> 

nine on the morning of Saturday, Julv z. in the Baltimon 

a few minutes before he was to take the train from Washing 

for a trip through New England. The rumor immediate!-. 

graphed to this city, that he was dead. This was b< : 

the wildest excitement here and elsewhere. It \\ as 
y- At Washington all was confusion and alarm. The wounded m. 

♦ room in the station, where he vomited. I ' 

wire hastilj summoned, and a preliminary examination of the wound wa 
ball, which was • • t" . 1 1 calibre, fired from a pi^t< «1 of the British •• bull-di 
hack about tour inches to the right of the spinal column, and subsequently 
fractured the eleventh rib. hs course \\a-~ downward and forward. I 
removed to the White House in an ambulance, and at m.,;<> \- m. 
had returned to his normal condition, and that his pulsi 
place, and the patient's pulse at 7 p. m. stood al 140. He w 
it was not deemed best to probe the wound foi 
Branch, early in the evening, the President 1" 1 
time supposed that the right lobe of the liver had 
was embedded either in this organ or in the 
occurred during the day. In the 1 
indicating that a main nerve in his hack had I 

live. Sunday was a day of alternal it in 

the evening his pulsi innammal 

signed by Surg G tames and Dr. J. J. v. irn. 

M nday morning Dr. D. Hayi iladelphia, and Dr. Fi ink II. 

arrived in Washington, having been summoned at the 
course which hail been taken by the attend- 
i swelling of the abdomei 



GARFL AREER. 



d that the kidni mach were uninjured, but 

I irth of July .ill over the country. 

evailed. I lent was able to retain food, and the 

uninjured. He did not vomit during Monday 

•w .unl Hamilton, who had returned home, were encouraging. 

of medical men was held, to consider the question of 

_ definite was d me until Beveral days Liter. 

For the first time since the day he was 

.. M..an.l the first crisis was thought 

mfortable day, although the weather was very hot, and 

A _ • I i reduce the temperature of the room by the absorp- 

'I . .■ d ty patient's face presented a slightly 

• bulletins were eiu On Friday his pulse ami temperature were 

being caused by the suppuration of the wound. In the 

alletin it was announced that the wound had begun to discharge healthy pus. The President 

rut than usual. Saturday, July 9, the beginning of the second week, was also a 

s in excellent spirits, and the bulletins were reassuring. On Sunday, July 

I l 3. Hamilton and Agnew that such slight changes as hail 

■ e better. The patient's pulse ranged from 102 i" to8. The discharge of pus 

rable. On Monday recovery was pronounced probable, and, with the exception of 

aerating machines, the day was uneventful. The next few days showed what 

ntinued improvement. The fever was less marked, and the patient's appetite was 

I and Taintor arrived at Washington for the purpoi 

pe by the aid of electrical instruments, of determining the position of the ball in 

< >n Saturday. July 16, solid food was relished. The patient seemed to be gain- 

ily, and the bulletins were gratifying, though monotonous. There were said to be no 

his apparently stead} toward convalescence, it was decided 

bulletin. Solid food was eaten with great relish on Sundav. and 
ride down the river. His pulse during these days was 

down tO below 90. The following few days were uneventful. 

d, and the wound was regarded as in a health} 
higher than usual, but this was said to be due to some 
th and a s m .,ii piece of bone were discharged from the 

ked than usual. 

day of anxiet} . Thi 

tnd at 7 \. m. he had a chill which was followed by a fever. At 

II, ami at 12.30 P. M. his pulse rnperature K)|. and respiration 

;. . and il was thought that a pus cavity had been formed. 

the mornii D \ ■ nd Hamilton were hastily sum- 

il train. This was the first serious relapse that the President 
the wound, and the feeling of alarm and anxiet) was 
• that pyaemia had set in. Other chills followed, and on the follow- 
in to relieve the pus cavity which had formed a few inches 
body. The in! was about an inch in length and three- 
tended in: nal wound. At night it was found that the pus 



THE ASSASSIN IT/OX \\/> STRi FOR L/Fl 



from the wound was draining through the new opening. This operation 

fever diminished. He was free from nausea, and his tem| 

as free as usual. The patient bore the operation without flinching. In 

was found that the eleventh ril> had suffered a compound 

inward. Dr. Reyburn was quoted as saying that th< 

following daj I>r. Bliss expressed the same opinion. M 

\\ hite House, but the President was said to be free from an) malarial 

On Monday, July 25, the patient seemed to be recovering from the ( 1 

charge of pus was healthy, and the pulse ranged from 96 to no. On the whol< 
new trouble with the wound was onl) transient. Tuesday was a day of panics in U 
and absurd rumors as to the President's condition, which were not warranted bj th 
seemed to be on the road to recovery, and fear gave way to more, confident feeling. V 
dressing a splinter of rib half an inch long was removed from the wound. D H 
a New Y.uk Tribune reporter, expressed tin- belief that tin- ball had lodged in the righl 

is. in tin' lower part of the abdomen, on the right side, twelve inches or 1 e from il 

Cheering reports continued as to the progress of the patient. II - g id ; I. and hi 

was excellent. On Thursday . Jul) 28, he was moved into an adjoining r whil 

thoroughly cleaned. On Friday the symptoms continued favorable, and his ultimati 
fidently anticipated. The wound appeared t<' In- in good condition, and the pal 
ished his nourishment. Solid food was taken on the following day. His pul 
July 30 — varied from 92 to [04. On Monday, Aug. 1, the electric induction bal 
tin' approximate position of the ball supposed to have been determined. Thi- confin 
tlu- surgeons that thr ball lay in the front wall of the abdomen, about five inch 
of the navel, and just over the groin. So long as it caused no trouble it • 
to remove it. During the following few da_\ s the reports were all encoui 
was natural, he took nourishment in the usual quantities, and tin- febrile sym| I 
cause alarm. His recovery was regarded as only a question of time. It w 
was becoming encysted. The noon bulk-tin was again omitted. Tin- patiei 
morphine. 

Nothing of moment occurred until Monday. Aug. 8. The fever on tin- ; 
caused some apprehensions in tin- minds of tin- surgeons, and it was thought to be d 
ment to tin- flow of pus. Tin- mouth of the original wound had nearly healed, and 
was made to relieve the pus sac had become somewhat clogged by the rib. gly. th 

was given ether, and a new channel for the outflow of pus was cut b 
It was about three and a half inches deep, and extended into the track 
brought on nausea, and the patient's pulse rose to [ 18, but s,„.n fell to 
the new channel was satisfactory, and the patient was relieved. The next day. Tu 
patient's condition was encouraging. Solid food, however, was dispel - 
nesday, Aug. i<>. the President signed a paper of extradition, in the ease of an 
forger. His fever was less marked than on the day befogs. Koumiss fern 
easily digested solid food were relished. The lever resulting from th.- ■■: 

day, and the patient's symptoms were favorable. He slept well, no 
following day, Friday, Aug. 12, Dr. Bliss, whose finger became 

denfs wound, was taken siek. The pulse oftl 

but this was not regarded as alarming. The wound on Saturday w ■ - ,nd 

the improved condition of the patient was noticeable. 



GARFIELD'S < I/.7 7 7.'. 



k a new and unfavorable turn. The President's old enemy, dys- 

retain his i"- >■ •*.! as well as for a few days previous. His pulse 

rhe following day was an anxious one. The patient's stomach rebelled, and 

: - a akened condition this was recognized .1- a serious trouble. 

than fifty pounds during his illness, ami it was admitted that if his stomach should 

tation would be critical. Secretarj Blaine and Secretary Lincoln, who 

graphed for. The bulletins stated that the patient had not slept well, and 

badly <>ut of order. 

In n the irritability of the President's stomach returned, and he vomited three times. 

m. hi> pul i, having increased twelve beats since noon. For the first time since he 

administered by injection. The alarm that spread over the countrj was 

i\ . Tuesday, Aug. 16, by the news that the patient hail vomited again several times 

during tin- day from no t<> i jo. His stomach continued weak, ami 

en by injection. He failed t<> rally from the prostration brought on the day before. 

_. 17. a in.. re hopeful feeling prevailed at the White House. The patient took small 

■il in the natural wa\ . ami his temperature was lower. His condition, OH the- whole, was 

although, as Secretarj Blaine telegraphed Minister L .well, it was extrem 1\ 

Dr. Hamilton ami Dr. Agnew were in attendance during the day. 

Thursday, Aug. 18, the noon bulletin said that the President was suffering from inflammation 

.t parotid gland, which is affected when one has the mumps. The symptom was not regarded 

In :'■ is, ami as the patient retained small quantities of food, the daj was regarded, on 

\ staff correspondent of the New York Tribune at Washington, however, 
■ my view of the case, ami telegraphed a^ follows. Thursday night, in regard to the sen- 

■f the White House: "Almost ever} one outside the White House believes that there is .1 
:. of the patient's blood, and that this is the eause of the steady decline in flesh and 

gth. This vitiation is not thought to amount to pyaemia, if then 1- no Lipid absorption of virulent 

matter in the blood: but it is argued that the blood is in a depraved condition, and that to this condition 

_ all the unfavorable symptoms and the very grave fact, which no one disputes, that in spite ol 

1 the President has been down hill ever since he recovered from the 

•. : 'iu- wound and made his first rally." 

following day, Frida> , Aug. 19, it was announced that the patient's stomach was resum- 

•,'...- regarded as critical, owing to the exhausted condition of the sick 

the Presidenl pain, ami it was hoped that the worst was over. 

:il given h\ injection, as it was imperative that his strength should be kept up by 

in- was reported in the noon bulletin to be diminishing. The 

retary Blaine telegraphed Mr- Lowell that the President 

, ; four (\.i} ' ' - ■■■tu\A\. A11-. ZO, more food was taken by the mouth 

n than on the da) before. The noon bulletin was delayed, and when it was issue. 1 

wound, it stated, had been explored to a depth of twelve and a 

Me lube. Before this time ihe surgeons had been able to examine ihe 

T 1 per penetration was permitted b\ ihe separation 

1 wound was said to be in a good condition. The pus was healthy, and Dr. 

ffering from pyaemia. His pulse and temperature were a little 

:,1\ official to ile- parotid swelling was in the morn- 

■ . ■ .1 and was free from pain. 



THE ASSASS/A \lh>\ \\/> STRUGGLE FOE III 

Sunday. Aug. 21, was another bad day, and the hopes of tin- public ••■ 
ing the preceding night the patient had been somewhat restless, and liis puis 
I lis mind appeared to be affected by his excessive weakness. In tl 
and the process of feeding him by the mouth had again to be suspended I i 

was said, was not caused by nausea, but by the accumulation ol ind phlegm in tl 

glandular irritation, the supposed cause of the bronchial obstruction, \\a- still 
ters and poultices seemed to have no effect in reducing the swelling. 

The reports that the President's mind was wandering caused tl 
together with the unusually high fever and the tempi me below I 

a critical one. His coughing deprived him of rest, and he could nol n 
through the mouth, because he could not retain it. The reports <>n Monday, thi 
encouraging. In the course of the day about twenty ounces of liquid 
retained. The efforts to scatter the inflammation of the parotid gland w» 
an operation was talked of. The danger apprehended was from continual w 
rebuilding. Slight delirium, caused by feebleness and by the long illness, was .main nol 
Blaine telegraphed to London that the general condition of tl P 
■■ lie is weak, exhausted, and emaciated," said the dispatch, " 
His weight when wounded was from 205 to 210 pounds." I lis failure in gain str< 
for alarm. This dispatch caused the graves! feeling of uneasiness everywhi r< T 
tin- w ound to he doing well. 

On Tuesday, the 23d, there w of hope, and for a time a be) 

1 es of liquid food were taken naturally and retained, ami at one time the patient's pul 
96 — the lowest point reached in a fortnight. Fears, however, that the inflai 
suppurate occasioned s ime uneasiness. The temperature and puls< 
before. On the whole, the President was thought to he about the same, and 1 
slight. 

On Wednesday, Aug. 24, the parotid swelling became softer than usual, ind 
tion had begun. Dr. Hamilton, therefore, took a lancet, ami throwing an 
swelling, without applying anaesthetics in any form, made an incision upward for half an 
downward for a like distance inl :k, an inch in front of and a lit'' 

immediately ran up to 115. hut soon tell !■• [04. Partially hardened pus, in quantity ah 
two peas, was taken out. The President appeared l ed b\ the operation, 

that danger from this source was removed. Late in the evening the arrival 
delphia, whence he had been hastily summoned, caused considerable alarm. II 
White I louse, where the question of the advisability of removing the Pi 
The members of the Cabinet were also present. It • 
prevailed that Vice-President Arthur had been summon. 
Presidency, owing to the inability of General Garfield, but 

Thursday, the 25th, the ease assumed a more serious phase. Th< 
swelling did not produce the desired results, and it was >t i i 1 tilled with pu 
patient's stomach seemed to he doing well, and yet it was seen that he w 
and was hourly becoming less able to throw off the 1 

( )i itself, the glandular disturbance would not have b rm, but in 

condition of the patient it was liable to produce the gi ling 

did not diminish, and the discharge of pus was very slight. This, taken with I 



G IRE/ELD'S ' AREER. 



anxiety. The physicians themselves admitted the gravity of the Presi- 

d for a favorable turn. Secretary Blaine telegraphed to Mr. Lowell that the 

.it intervals, had been clouded, ami that he u.h losing strength. Friday it was thought 

e of the patient's recovery. The unfavorable symptoms continued. 

|8, ami it remained at i me time. The patient, on awakening, suffered 

i infusion. The pus from the glandular swelling began to suppurate through the ear. 

ikened condition of the patient this process, which ordinarily would be regarded as an 

gn, was looked upon as an aiUlition.il cause for alarm. That the patient's blood was 

, D B admitted. The wound, he said, looked badly. The sides were flabby, and the pus 

■. . and unhealthy. The only hope left was based upon the President's stomach. Should 

il him, the end would only be a question of hours. In the noon bulletin the surgeons stated frankly 

for the first time that his condition was critical. 

was another day of terrible suspense ami anxiety. It was popularly supposed 
that tl the P dent was only a question of a day or two, or perhaps a few hours. The bul- 

- held out little hope. In the morning ami at noon the President's pulse was i -•". His temperature 
gree higher at noon than at 8.30 \. u. Hew, is feebler than on the day before. The 
mptom was his ability to take ami retain liquid food naturally. No change was 
rved in the parotid swelling or in the wound. In the afternoon, however, the conditions were some- 
what His mind was clearer, and his pulse fell to 106. In the evening lie asked for 

milk toast, which was given to him. A better feeling prevailed, and this was increased on Sunday, when 
med to have emerged from the valley of the shadow of death. No trouble was experi- 
• : with the stomach, his pulse fell to 100, ami respiration ami temperature were normal. Another 
■n was made in the parotid swelling to facilitate' tin- escape of pus. The wound looked l 

than it had on the da) before. 

of the weather the last of the week reopened the question of the Preside nt's 

bite House. The air in Washington is full of malaria in September, and it was 

. the Cabinet and tin- surgeons that his removal was imperative. The President himself 

Branch, inasmuch as it was inexpedient to undertake a journey to 

finally determined upon on Saturday. Sept. .;. His condition was comfortable, and 

ight that there would be less risk in taking the journey than in remaining in Washington. 

ng there was a slight disturbance of the patient's stomach, and he vomited twice 

in the night. The vomiting was caused by phlegm in the throat, it was thought, ami was unaccom- 

pulse was somewhat higher on Sunday than on Saturday. The prospect 
med to make him slightly resthss ami nervous. The parotid swelling 

ndition of the wound remained about the same. 
inh to be said about the week that followed. Little change w as noticed in the 
d to hold his own from day to day. but made little if any perceptible 
•■led as an encouraging si^. n . however, that he did not grow 

eding we.-k gave way to hope for his ultimate recovery. The 

made day after day that the condition of the patient 

me hour on the preceding day. Some of the symp- 

glandular swelling decreased in Bize, ami the patient's pulse was : ,i times 

• fairlv well at night. Wednesday evening, Aug. 31, his pulse ranged 

but the next day the fever subsided somewhat, and there 

ment in his condition. Solid \,„n\ was taken in considerable quanti- 



THE XSSASSINATION \ND STRUGGLE FOR III I 






Nothing ofspecia] importance occurred until Wednesday, Sept. 7. when tl P 
removed to Long Branch by rail. Elaborate preparations had been mad 

before 6 \. w. the patient was carried down stairs and placed in an Adam- I . in which he 

was driven from the White II »use to the special train which had been fitted up for hi- reception. His 
pulse before he left the White House was 118, temperature 99.8, respiration 18. I ■ in which he 

was placed had been carefully fitted up with a spring bed, by which the motion a mini- 

mum. The road to Long Branch, by way of Philadelphia, Monmouth Junction and Sea Girt, was 
cleared of .til trains, and the journey was made rapidly and without accident. Crow< 
present at many of the stations, but tiny kept perfectly quiet. I p to Philadelphia, th< P 
to enjoy tin- ride, but from Philadelphia to Sea Girt he was restli by the 

journey. The salt air which blew through the car on its journey iron, - <, 
revived him somewhat. The train reached Elberon at a few minutes past one o'clock, and the P 

was immediately removed to the r n which had been prepared for him in th< '■' v '. 

Francklyn. At 6.30 p. m. his pulse was found to be 124, temperature 101.6, res| 
increased pulse was said to he due to the excitement and fatigue incidental to tin- journe\ . In ; ; 
ing the fever was less marked. 

On the following day. despite the intense heat thai prevailed al Long Branch, the 
expressed himself as " feeling better,'" and the physicians were hopeful of speed} : 
At the President's own desire. Drs. Barnes, Reyburn, and Woodward withdrew fromtl 
ing surgeons, after signing the official bulletins of Sept. 7. the President believing that a smaller number 
of attendants could manage the case as well as the number al first engaged upon it. 

Slight but positive improvement, with tew fluctuations, was made bv the President until Sunday, 

the [Ith, when some anxiety was caused by the announcement of a rise in pulse, Win prr.it u: i 

ration, and a distressing cough revealed the presence of some lung trouble, supposed t" ':■• 

tion of a pus cavity in the right lobe, from whiih pus was discharged into his throat. At the same lime 

there was a marked improvement in the condition of the parotid gland, some of th< 

sloughing away, to the relief of the patient, and on .Monday there was a change for the be ::■ r, I 

trouble partially subsiding, the gland and wound m iking good progress in healing, and tin- si 

tinuing to perform its functions well. The favorable symptoms continued on thi 

the President was placed tor the first time in a reclining chair, and spent half an houi I 

results. The lung trouble apparently grew less, and the patient no longer felt I 

fatigue of which he had formerly complained. On Wednesday, the 15th, he was again placed in the 

reclining chair, and partook, among other tl ime fruit, with evident relish. I. 

perceptible, however, than on the previous day. and it became apparent that In 

a'wrss in the lower part of the right lung, the result of septic infection of the b 

was no change in his condition. He took food in variety, though his .[;■ His 

determinatio 1 to get well wavered a little at times, and he oi ssed tear that bl 

sea-side would be of no avail alter all. 

Public anxiety increased -really on Friday , Sepl 
wound was not healthy in appearance, and the discharge from it was thin and wati 

piration was 22. He was again afflicted with b( nd although hi- and he 

ate more food than usual, he was evidently growing weak 

Halt" an hour b( I on Saturday, Sept. 17, fully half an 

hour. Slight evidences of a chill had been discovered the prei 1 ding night, but the ph 
able to keep it under control. The attack of the chills was followed later by pi 






GARFIELD'S C IREER. 



nt felt slightly relieved. In the evening of the following day. Sun- 
r fifteen minutes, excited the gravest apprehensions among the President's 
itient suffered severely firom its effects. Though he felt relieved a few hours later, 
the pi i tlu- opinion that the situation was very critical. 

\1 - pened ominously. A chill, lasting about fifteen minutes, occurred at 8.30 \. M. 

siderable febrile rise and sweating. The bulletin issued at 12.30 p. m. stated 

that • aeraj condition remained unchanged; his temperature at that time being >t^.j. pulse 

• the first chill had seized the patient, he had been sinking slowly and 
lally. Immediately after the issue of the second bulletin, dispatches were sent by Attorney-G 

Blaine and Lincoln to hasten their return to Elberon. A dispatch was 

sident Arthur. Everybody seemed to be convinced that the crisis was at hand. 

rcely any encouragement. As the evening passed, the patient seemed to 

.1 weaker, and at 10.35 p. m., after a struggle for life lasting seventy-nine days, death 

cd the sufferer. 



PULSE, TEMPERATURE, AND RESPIRATION. 

The following table shows the fluctuations in the President's pulse, temperature, and respiration 
day to day, up t<> the time <>t" his removal from the White House. The figures are taken from tin- 
>n, and earl} evening bulletins: 















1 I Ml-I K \ I I Kl . 









ioo 101.9 










; 






- 








19 


-1 


-1 


-1 


• 1 


-1 




















-1 




-1 















I 1 Mil P( \1 I Kl 



1.. 1 

'"I 

108 
1 10 

1 n. 



.,s 102 

I.. I I.'. 



1 10 




IOJ 


I..S 




I..S 


102 


'"1 




I..S 


IIS 




" 1 




1 1.' 


1 1.' 







106 




1 10 






1 10 




>"t 

1 1.' 


1 1.' 




MS 


II'. 






"1 




IOJ 


1 II. 

1 10 




II'. 


















"•I 


no 




1' 1 





•<s. I 

98 1 






I 



ioaa 



I. .IS 

101. 1 
101.9 

II. I 
1 • 1 1 . .• 
101. a 

• 



1 

|S Iff 19 

I . 

[9 19 19 

19 19 19 

19 19 19 

19 I., 19 

i.s 18 19 

.-.. 19 -'-■ 

is is 18 

.S IS 19 

18 is 19 

17 '7 19 



, 



is 18 IS 

IS 17 I S 

,; is 18 

17 18 is 
is 18 is 

18 18 is 

IS IS IS 



THE \l TOPSY 






The i. :< ord of the bulletins afti i rea< hing Elberon is .is follows : 



Sepl i' 
Sept. i i 



PI LSI 




V. M. 


M. 


P. M . 


I06 


"1 


IO8 


II | 


94 




l(»l 




IOO 


IOO 


100 


II >> 


1 I | 


1 in 


1 10 


IOO 


106 


1. . - 


|1»> 


• 


• 



1 I Ml-l RATI l.'l 



A. M. 



98. I 









lOfi 





I'M 1 




■ 










n is 18 
■8 ,7 .8 

17 17 IS 









THE AUTOPSY. 

At lour o'clock, p. m.. Sept. 20, the body was laid out foi examination. 'I nl l>i^. 

Agnew, Bliss, Barnes, Reyburn, Woodward, and Lamb. The examination p nd dan- 

gerous one, the poisonous condition of the flesh rendering it exceedingly dangerous to handle. 

The following official bulletin was prepared at eleven o'clock in tin 
who had been in attendance upon the late President: 

Bj previous arrangement, a post-mortem examination o( th 
and with the assistance ol Di 
ing Assistanl Surgi on D. S. 1 amb ol tin trmv M 
Lamb. It was found thai the ball, after fracturing tin tli rib, had pi 

spinal canal, fracturing the bodi of the firs! lumbar vertebra, drawin 
parts, and lodging jusl below the pan< reas, aboul two inches and .1 hall to the li fl 
ii had become complcteh encysted. The immediate cause "i death 
adjoining the track of the ball, the blood rupturing the peritoneum, and ncarh .1 pinl 
hemorrhage i- believed to have been the cause of the severe pain in the lo 
An abscess cavity, six inches b) four in dimensions, was found in th 
transverse colon, which were stronglj intcr-ndh 

11 and tin' wound, although the suppurating channi 1 
and tin' righl kidne; almosl to the righl groin. This < hanncl, now know ■ 

d ddring life to have been the track of tin ball. On an 
brom hitis were found on both ~iiK- . with broni ho-pneumonia of tin 
abscesses; nor were am found in an 1 oth 
third of an inch in diameter. In reviewing the histon ,>i th 

urfaces, and especially th ra. furnish a 

septii condition « hich existed. 

I) \\ I F. It. II 

J. K. Bar: D. II ' 

J. I W 

R. Ri \ 111 KN. 




'¥■■ 



■ 










CHAPTER V 







THE LAST MORNING AT LONG BRANCH. 



had scarcely risen on the last morning at Long Branch when the throng began to 

ind the Elberon. People came from everj direction in all manner of conveyances. 

It had been determined to admit them freely, and the line began to form before eight 

k. The (1 s were opened at exactly 8.30, and the crowd passed rapidly through. 

The coffin was perfectly plain, and the only emblem was .1 leaf of sage palm, which lay 
ss the lid. At 9.40 the doors ofFrancklyn cottagewere closed for all but the Cabinet, 
the family, the immediate attendants <>f the dead, and the surgeons. All these were 
quieth assembled in a large parlor about the bier, and the religious ceremonies were com- 
menced. After the reading of the Scriptures Rev. Mr. Young offered prayer, which 
■ d the brief sen ices at the v ottage. 



THE FUNERAL JOURNEY TO THE CAPITAL. 



I train left Elberon at ten o'clock, Wednesday, the 21st. From the start the road was 

e lined with -i^n- of mourning, and with sorrowful faces. At Princeton Junction the students 

ge, three miles away, and strewn the track for over one hundred yards with 

V all stations the depots were tastefully draped, and the people st>. id 

ered, as the train with the dead President passed by. 

eral train arrived at Washington at ^.35 '"• M -- half an hour late. As earl) as one o'clock 

in to gather about the Baltimo & Pol imac depot, and the crowd continued to 

until all ti ispended, and a solid mass of men, women, and children filled the Btr< et. 

pied all of Sixth Street, from the railroad crossing t.. Pennsylvania Avenue. 
In all the • _; through tin- park, and tin- streets adjacent i" tin- railw .i\ track, carriages filled 

• :ady awaiting the arrival of the funeral train. The roofs <>i tin- houses in the vicin- 
I i occupied. Tin- sidewalks were so jammed as to make 

m. about fifty officers of the army and navy, in full uniform, assem- 
bled in l Most cot picuous among them were General Sherman and Rear-Admiral 
n slowly moved int.. tin- depot. The escort of officers drew up in line, facing 
ry Blaine, who assisted Mrs. Garfield to descend. Taking the 



LYING TN STAT1 IT W \Slll VGTO \ 






right arm of the secretary, and the LeA arm ol hei son Harry, she walked rapidh down the platfi 

followed by the rest of the funeral partj . After the) had entered tl 

the car in which the bodj lay. The coffin was quietl) passed out, and borne upon their shouli 

the escort of officers following. A bugler outside blew a note upon his instrument, and the M 

I '..Hid began to plaj " Nearer, m\ God, to Thee." The thousands of people in the 

ered, and the coffin was placed in the hearse. The procession slowly formed and started down Pi 

sylvania Avenue towards the Capitol. The sidewalks were packed with people, and even buildinj 

the route was filled with spectators. Black drapery floated from the w indovt - of even s!i< >p and dwelling. 

Mounted policemen led the way. and seven mounted officers of the army and navj followed. 

playing a dirge, came next. After them came the Washington Light Infantry. A corps of muffled 

drums accompanied the United States troops and another band. The National Rifles, of W; 

and a squad of colored troops, a company belonging to the District, followed, and th< ci lebrated Mai 

occupied the next place in the procession. The marine corps stationed at the Na\y Yard were i 

followed bv five companies of soldiers stationed al the arsenal. The Knights Templars organizati< 

the city, ol which order the President had been a member, were next in line, ami closeh following 

them came the hearse, drawn In six iron-gray horses, elegantly caparisoned. At the head of each 

horse walked a colored servant, dressed in black; badges of crape descended around their coats, and 

their high hats were wrapped with crape. The driver sat alone upon the box. A lonj .»(>«- 

was tied to his hat, with a rosette full upon his shoulder. Men and women were weeping, and children 

regarded the unusual scene with profound solemnity. 

| (i ^3Rhere were Mime among them who remembered the scenes of the inauguration so recently 
celebrated. Now Washington was draped with the symbols of mourning. Crape had taken the pla 
red, white ami blue, and the remains of James A. Garfield now lay within a few feet of the spot wl 
a little over six months ago, in the t'nll prime of manhood, he promised to govern 50, 
pie wisely, justly, and well. The procession on the |ih of March was brilliant ami ga) . The bands 

played the liveliest airs, and smiles and cheers greeted the parade. The President bowed to the right 

and left. I le seemed inspired b\ the occasion. Now the profession was funereal. Dirgi andchurch 
music were furnished by the bands, drums were muffled, and muskets reversed. All that remained of 
the President of March 4 lay in a hearse, drawn slowly to the building whose halls he had trod in lift- 
tor main years. 

LYING IN STATE AT WASHINGTON. 

Washington never before witnessed such a scene as thai which was presenlei ( il on 

Thursday. By six o'clock, a.m.. the Crowds had assembled, and were filing in through I ' in 

streams. Beyond the ceaseless tramp of the people there was no sound, I 
being swallowed up in the awe which the presence of the dead President inspired. 
man_\- colored people in the throng, of both sexes and of all a^es ,md conditions. Common i. 
tattered clothing crowded upon elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen, all inspired hv a common 
motive. It was ascertained that 40.000 people passed the coilin during ti 

falquewere some beautiful floral decorations. There was a broken column of roses, oft!.. ' Neil 

variety, surmounted by a white dove. Next came a lovely design re] 
The gate-posts were surmounted by globes of immortelle-. N( v • 

buds, the points being tipped with fern, which gave it a pretty and fresh effect. mk 

of white flowers, from which sprang a column on which v\.i- perched a white . n the bank 

6 



G IRE/ELD'S < AREER. 



whit i n the words : " Our Martyr President." At each end ol the floral displaj was 

: iv) leaves lying on the floor. In the afternoon there was sent from the British Legation a 
9t beautiful ever seen in Washington. It came in obedience t<> orders tele- 
m the Queen, and the accompanying card bore the following touching inscription : 

Qjieen Victoria, to the memorj of the late President Garfield. An expression of her sorrow 
mpathy with Mrs. Garfield and the American Nation. 

The interior of the rotunda was hung in black, though not so heavily as to produce .1 marked 

In .ill other respects thi> portion <>!' the Capitol presented its usual appearance. 
During the afternoon there were signs that the body of President Garfield had commenced u> 
i it being understood that in such event it was the wish of Mrs. Garfield that the features 
r husband should be withheld from the public gaze, the lid of the casket was closed, bj ordei ol 
I llaine, at about 6.30 p. m. 

n o'clock the following morning the doors of the rotunda, and a few moments later those 

of the other parts of the Capitol were closed, when the guards were directed t" stand with their backs to 

-. and not to look into the rotunda themselves, nor to permit others to look in until after Mrs. 

\isit. The four entrances having been thus closed and guarded, the lid of the coffin was 

removed and Mrs. Garfield was escorted to the rotunda, which she entered alone through the north 

Not .i living soul was in the \ast circular room except herself. She was alone with her dead, 

and what occurred during the twenty minutes she remained there n le can tell. When she lefl she 

some of the (lowers that surrounded the coffin, and was escorted back to the President's 
The afflicted widow walked with a firm step, and betrayed no outward emotion. 

THE RELIGIOUS SERVICES AT WASHINGTON. 

Al twel • o'clock the doors were reopened for those who by their official position were entitled 

tn hour onlj the members of the Army of the Cumberland and the guards of honor were 

Gr< it crowds surrounded the doors, but remained for the most part in silence. Gradually the 

throng increased; now a diplomat, with his attendants in glittering court dresses, and now .1 society or 

imittee, in regalia and plume- in sober black, making their appearance. 

m ents before two o'clock the Beauseant Commandery of Knights Templars from 

filed in and depositeda handsome floral tribute to the dead President. A few minute- latei a 
number of the members of the 1 tiplomatu Corps entered and took the seats assigned to them in the rear of 

. ommodation of the Supreme Court, the members of which soon alter entered, 

Waite. V ( lonel Rockwell, Dr. Boynton, Private Secretai Brown, 

.'..hi. -n V'oung, Hindlej and Duke, Mr. and Mrs. Bolney, Colonel and Mrs. 

I Pruden, Mi M Montgomery, and Mrs. Dean, representing the household ol the 

red and took th< ed for them. The members of the House filed in 

led h\ the • thai body, and by ex-Speakers Randall and Banks. 

Senator Anthonj leading, who entered b) the north d ■. Al 

>. binet and distinguished guests entered in the following order: President Arthur 

Grant and Hayi : ry ami Mrs. Windom, Secretar} and 

Mi Hunt, Attorjiey-General and Mr-. Mac Veagh, Secretary Kirkwood 

Generals Drum and Beale- The vast assembly rose, as ol one 



THE RELIGIOUS SERVICES 17 WASHINGTON 

• d, i" honor the new President, and u hen the} had regained their seats th( 
with the hymn, " Asleep in Jesus," beautifullj rendered by tin- volunteer i hoir. 

The Rev. Dr. Rankin then ascended the raised platform .it the head of the catafalqui 
in a clear, distinct voice, tin' following Scriptural selections: 

Mi. Lord reigneth. The floods have lifted up their voii 
Clouds and darkness are roundabout Him: righteousness ami judgnu 
and princes decree justice. He changeth the times and the seasons. II. 

For there is no power but of God. The powers that bean ordained ol God. Wl 
resisteth the ordinance of God ; and thej that resist shall 

In his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted ol l •> rd, the Lord 
from Judah the mighty man, the man of war, the honorable man and th inseloi 

There i- no man thai hath j>< >%v • -nil to retain tl ither hath hi ■ 

no discharge in that war. There -hall lie lie at rest with kings an. I counseloi 

. The clods of tin- valley shall he sweet unto him ; and < ■■- erj man shall draw afl 
There the wicked cease from troubling, ami there tin- wear) be at n 

Then answered Jesus unto them : Verily, verily, I -.a unto you, In- that hearcth mj 
hath everlasting life ami shall not come into condemnation; hut hath passed from death unto 
will I grant to sit with me on my throni [ also overcame, and sit down with im Fathci in in- | 

that do Hi- commandments that thej h tin- tree of lit'-, ami may enter in through t 1 

shall see Hi- tare, ami Ili- name shall lu- in their foreheads. 

And He went a little further and fell on His face and prayed, saying: O mj Father.il ;' 
me. Nevertheless, not as I will, hut as thou wilt. 

It became Him for whom art- all things, and h\ whom are all thin-- in brinj 
their salvation perfei I through suffi ring, ["he disciple is not above hi- masti i 

i i ['K that In- lu- a- his master and the servanl a- hi 

Let not your heart- be troubled ; ye believi l I eve also in me. I will not 

you. Leave the fatherless children ; t will preserve them alive. And lei thy widow trust it 

And it came to pa--, when they came to Bethlehem, that all the . itj w 
and -he -aid unto them, eall me not Naomi, .all me Mara: for the Lord hath dealt ven bitl 
I. oid hath broug again empty. 

[ forsaki hee ■ but « ith 
but with everlasting kindness will I have men \ on thee, -a ith the I 

And Jacob died and was gathered unto his people. And Joseph i 
both chariots and horsemen; and it was a very great company. And when thi inl 
■■aid. this i- a grievous warning to thee. And they did unto hin 
into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the fiel 
ing plai e 

And I heard .<•.•■■• • the dead whii h die ii 

saith the spirit, that thej mi k« do follow tl 

I would not have you to bi ignorant concerning them whii 
hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rosi 

omforl one another with thi Faithful i- he that talleth 

l I ord gave, the Lord hath taken away. Q 

The Rev. Dr. [saa< Erretl then offered the following prayer: 

Our beloved President is dead. Raised b; 
stricken down h\ a murderous ham! - cut off in hi- glorious promise n d ■' I 
administration of public affairs sunk int.. disappoii I 
calamih . maj out hi Ij humbled bi f< I 

down, ami we nun he taken through thi- darkness out into 
dost not forget to be merciful. And whii. 

not forget, O Lord, how much we have to be thankful for. \V< 
lives, that though out (. hi M lly and violei I 

ful performance of all its functions, that there is no iar in it- machinci 



4 o G I /.'/ '//:/./>> CAREER. 



i thit rhee, :uul we humbly pray thai the President who our departed 

ss and truth, and be prepared in everything by the blessing of God for the 
he be able to guide the affairs of 1 1 1 i — Nation with discretion, may party ani- 
■. this sacriffed so that, one people, in a deeper sense than we have 
terrible affliction. 
. paid an eloquent and touching tribul to M G .: t" the noble and 

xhibited in the houi I tribulation, and exhorting her to look to < rod in the daj s ol her 

the fatherless children ; that the sons should, under the benedictio oh up 

..v til daughter might rise into a true, a glorious womanhood, and live b 
I i have pity on the dear old mother over the mountains, waiting for the dead bodj ol 

haired. 

As the closing words <>t" the prayer died away, the Rev. F. 1>- Powers, "I the Vermont Avenue 
>. stian Church, <>t" which President Garfield was a member, spoke in a clear and distinct voice, .is 
follov 

r h, Nation 1 1 ;t ~- ;a hi -t burs) upon our heads. We -it half crushed amid the ruin it has 
nd hopes and tears, as far as human wisdom sees, were vain. Our loved one 1 1 :• - i 
t away from the body. Wi forgel for a time, the things that are seen. We remember with 
I he sometimes himself preached, and which he always trulj loved. And w 
loud structure, and beauty instead of ruin; glory, honor, immortality, spiritual and eternal life in 
th. The chief ulorv of this man. as wi- think of him now. was his discipleship in the school of Christ, 
an will be the theme of our orators and historians, and they mu6t be worthy men to speak 
a Christian thai »< love to think of him now. It was this which made his life to man an invaluable 
table loss, lit— eternity to himself an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and thai fadeth n«>t away . 
ion was as broad as the religion of! hri I II a imple Christian, bound by no sectarian 

•hip with all pure spirits. He was a Christologisl rather than a theologist lie had greal reverem 

in, husband, and father is a glory to this Nation. He had a most kindly nature. His 

. : strong. Hi won men to him. He had no enemies. The ham! that struck him was not 

enemj "i the position, the enemy ol the country, the enemy of God. He sought to do right, man- 

1 

II, h know. 1 1 1- wrought even in his pain a better work for the Nation than we can now estimate. 

■ from an\ fault of his, but we may in some sense reverently apply to him the words 
ms, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of out 
M ..Ionian a6 All G G in as Aristides the Just, may nol 

i food ': 

of work, and he loved to talk of the leisure that did not come to him. Now he has 

He is a freed spirit; absent from the bodj he is present with the 

eposi What resl has been hie for these four days 1 The brave spirit 

from troubling and the wi I The patient soul \\hicli 

O, this pain!" i- no« in a world without pain. S the flowers 

\ iituniti rolls round, the birds have long since hushed theii voices, the flowers faded 

kly, ") ing hue \ so earthly things pass awaj and what is true remains with God. 

• I the banners glitter in the sunlight, the music of instruments and of oratory 

nd. Bui the spring and lumratr pass by, and the autumn 

i . ... and underneath are thi 

inclusion i ddress, the Rev. J. <i. Butler offered prayer, as follows: 

. hable and Tin ways pasl findii 
In this hour ol Covi nanl God, tin ' lod 

; rhee, and we come v ith penitent 

We thank God for t n main- the Nation 

fot hi- faith and pietj the faith that was tir-t in his 
i ,...! bi praisi d fot thi 
we « dl but a- Thou « ilt. Thy wisdom 



THE ST \R1 FOR < LE\ EL \M>. 



M 



love are infinite and unerring. Sanctity this faith trial to I 

commend to Thee verj tenderly her v\Ih,*,- faith and com ig 

for thi ol helpful sympathy around her in tlii- her dark 

entrusted to her training. Oh! that they maj walk in the faith of tli< ir fathi 

Keep them all from accident upon their journey, bearing this 

l leofthe "Hi when the child shall find its mother and the mother the child 

the institutions of freedom and religion thi 

ii~ worth) of Thee. Give us the wisdom and courage needed 

among the nations. Endow with wisdom and grace tin servant upon whom I 

suddenly come. Bless hie Cabinet, coming from their anxious and loving mil 

death. Oh, thai all our rulers may ever rule in Tin fear, and thai "»\ land n 

of justice and equity animating those who make and < aw, that all th< 

worthj subjects of the coming kingdom ol oui I i " ! tnd Saviour, J< l to whom with i 

i'li i.l Spirit, be dominion and power and glory, world will Vmen. 

Immediate!} after the close of the services the floral decorations were all remo ed M G rficld 
having requested that they be sent to her home at Mentor i except the beautiful \\ reuth, tl • 
Victoria. 

When the body had been placed in the hearse the troops were wheeled into line, and tl 
moved off to funereal music in the following order : 

Two battalions of I listrii I I 
Tun companies ol 

companies ol the I nited Stati Si ond Vrtillcry. 
Lighl Batter; ( ompan y A, 1 

Grand \.rm) ol thi R< public. 

Conkling Club, Boys in Blue. 
Columbia, Washington, and IV Molaj Commanderies, Knights Templars ol ' 
Beauseanl Commandery, Knights Templars, of Bnltim 
The hearse, drawn by -ix iron-gray horses, each led by 

Carriages occupied In officers of the Exei VI wives, rclatii 

Grant and Hayes, President Arthur, and Secreta I the other Cabinet ministers and tin ir 

^ nil fustice Waite and Associate Justices Marian, Matthews, and Millci 
and Territories, and Commissioners of the Districl "i Columbia, the Judgi 
of Columbia, and Judges of the I nited States Courts; the \ istant v 
the Assistant Postmasters-General, the Solicitor-General and the \ isl 

An immense crowd was assembled about the Capitol when the body was brought out, and the line 
of march was packed with people. Pennsylvania Avenue was kept clear b) the police, with I 
ropes, but great difficulty was experienced in keeping the streets clear. 



THE START FOR CLEVELAND. 

The funeral train was divided into two sections of some en Pullman pal; 

the first section bearing the bodj of the President and the funeral party: thi 
Senators and Representatives. The hearse reached the depot al )•-"• at which n 

played a solemn air. The army and navy officers marched out I vay, and st I in t • 

with lu-ads uncovered, while the artillerj sergeants bore the coffin on t>> the platform and tin 

ear. as they had taken it out on Wednesday. Then came the Cabinet. The pall-beat 

closelj by the army and navy officers and White House empli G Grant and 

Mr. Hayes, arm in arm. Directly after came the President, on the arm of S nd with 



GARFIEL&S CAREER. 



■ . the other side. T,hen came Secretary and Mrs. Lincoln, Secretary and 

ad Mrs. Hunt. Secretary and Mrs. James, and the others in irregular order. 

Beal returned in a few moments, escorting the President and General Grant 

\ few minutes after five o'clock the funeral train passed out of the depot, I'm] low ed 

. .d by the ( mal train. Among the Senators and Representatives accompany- 

:i in' the train w - ird, "t Delaware; Anthony, of Rhode Island; 

S lerman, of Ohio ; Ingalls, of Kansas; Pugh, <>i" Alabama; M Tgan, of 

New Hampshire; and Miller, of New York; Sergeant-at-Arms Bright, Executive 

Murphy, and Deputy Sergeant-at-Arms Christy. The next car contained 

Louisiana; McMillan, of Minnesota; Jones, of Nevada; Garland, of Arkansas; 

Kentucky : [ones, of Florida; Edmunds, of Vermont ; Kellogg, of Louisiana; andGroome.ol 

ime the railroad officials' car, followed by t\\" coaches occupied by the Represent- 

• : which wen M( ssrs. Jacobs, "i New York; Harris, of New Jersey i Brewer and 

■nia: Wilson, of Wesl Virginia; and Belmont, of New York. In the next car 

Virginia; Townsend, of Ohio; Hill, of New Jersey; Hardenburgh, <>f 

. ; |. R. Thomas, of Illinois; Clarke, of Missouri; Desendorf, of Virginia ; Nathan, of Ohio; 

Camp, ol New York : Hiscock, of New York; Bayne, of Pennsylvania ; Evans, of 

( rolina; Robinson, of Ohio; McCook, of New York; McKinley, of Ohii B sjgs, of New 

, : Dowd, ol North Carolina; Henderson, of Illinois ; Watson, of Pennsylvania ; McClure, 

■ i : Dawes, of Ohio; Brumm, of Pennsylvania; Taylor, of Ohio ; Ritchie, ol 

i; . . . • Connecticut; Kasson, of Iowa ; Beltzhoover, of Pennsylvania ; Mutcht insyl- 

t; Urner, of Maryland ; West, of New York : Randall, of Pennsylvania ; Ermestrout and Tucker, 

Starin, Gen. N. P. Hanks, and Dr. <>. K. Lormy. There were only two repre- 

i the press on this train. 

Along tin- entire line from Washington to Cleveland, at all towns and clusters of houses, people 

rrow a- the funeral trains passed. In the depot at Baltimore were the mayor 

til public office! the Grand Army of the Republic, and the Fifth Maryland Regiment in 

■ aring crape. For the distance of a mile on the outside of the city, the sides "i the 

tfded with men, women, and children. At Harrisburg, the Cit) Grays, the posts ol the 

(, era! Republican and Democratic clubs marched over to Bridgeport, and were 

\s the train passed cannon broke the stillness of the night, and the bells from 

pie in Harrisburg and Bridgeport began to toll. At Pittsburg fully 5,000 people were gathered 

the train arrived at 5. (.o in the morning, amid the tolling of bells and the sound "f the 

minu 1 Bhort stop the funeral train again moved onward towards Ohio, and crossed the 

M., continuing t" meet the same evidences of sorrow on the faces ol the people gath- 

the train bearing the bod} of the late President arriving at Cleveland at t.30, and 

v \ emenl h.u\ all been completed for its reception at the 

■ an hour before the train arrived. The casket was immediately placed in a large hearse, w hi< h 

draped with heavy mourning outside, and with small American flags inside. It was 

with black broadcloth neck and body blanket-, trimmed with deep silver 

! colored om, a leader of black and white cord extending from the 

being used for the purpose. The first t<> alight from the funeral train was General 

:]'. in full uniform. These formed parallel lines along the platform, between which 

1 the I'amilv of the 1 nt walked, two by two, to the carriages which 

remains were deposited in the hearse thi church-bells began 



THE ' I I 1/ 1/ $Ul 



tolling, which was continued until it reached the Publk Squari 

in the square, consisted of the Oriental Knights Templa ( /eland, the I ( 

Cleveland, and the Columbia Commandery Knights Templa 

field was a member. Besides these, there were the c'n\ Troop, and several othi 

hundred State militia were in attendance in the neighborh I 

extended from two to three blocks in either direction from the station. 

The coffin was borne fr the train bj ten I nited States artillerymen, wh 

and who, with drawn swords took up their posidons beside the hearse. \ 

placed in the hearse, the beautiful black horses drew it slowlj down the avenui I 

diers and Knights Templars, who were drawn up on the west side and faced east, with ln-.i. : 

reverently bowed. Slewl} the procession took up its march down the avenue in the follow 

Colonel Wilson nnd Stafl 
Silver ( iraj Band. 

First lit \ T p. 

I learse and horses, guarded b) Knights remplars in columns ■ •! thre< . and flanl 
of the I i side, 

land (ir.iv -.. 
I i Ihio Volunl 
ibinct. 
General Sherman and Aides. 
(Ina id of Honor, composed of officers of the Amu and Navy, and distinguish 

As the column, headed by the three platoons of police started from the Euclid A.venu< 
Paul's Church bells commenced tolling. Other churches along the line followed, and added 
solemnity of the march. The sidewalks and broad lawns were literally packed with people, 
sands ol persons occupied stands erected for the occasion, and thousands of others witn< 
si ene from carriages. 

Mo>t of the floral offerings which were exhibited in the rotunda of the Capitol •• 
the > askel in the catafalque. Shortlj after the remains were placed on the bier in the catafalqui 
ernor Foster announced that the coffin would not be opened. 



THE CATAFALQUE. 

The pavilion was probably the finest temporary structure of the kind ■ 
in the centre of the Square, and was (O feet square at the base. The lour p rted bj 

arches 36 feet high and 24 feet wide at the base. The catafalque, upon which I 
five feet and a half high, covered with black velvet and handsomeh festooned. \ 
ascended to the floor from the east and west fronts. The pavilion w 
apex of the root'. From the centre of the roof rose a beautiful gill globe supp 
angel represented in the attitude of blessing, the hands outspread. th< 
approaching above the head. The columns at each side of the are:, namented ; 

a beautiful design and exquisitely draped. Over these were suspended unfurl' 
of the arches bore similar shields. On the angles of the roof were groups of ftirh d ' 
from the angles of the base were elevated platforms, occupied by fully unil 
platform was provided with a suitable piece of field artillery. 

The structure was appropriately decorated from base to dome with black and wl 



44 



G \RFIELnS I \REER. 



.u-a in va s of the pavilion. The interior was beautified with rare 

s, and exquisite floral designs, two car-loads of which wire from Cincinnati. The 

inter iped in plain ami appropriate bands of rich black goods. The catafalque was entered 

nd west by an inclined platform, carpeted with matting wide enough to allow the pass- 

tan thirty persons abreast. 

AT THE CASKET. 

lent's coffin was placed with the head towards the east. The words 

I . . r well run. 

I s work well do 

crown well «<m. 
N 

in beautiful letters on a scroll between the t\\" pillars. A foot above this was a fine crayon por- 
trait «'t" the deceased. <>n the head of the coffin rested the elegant floral wreath ordered by Queen Vic- 
vere two ferns lying crossed. Above the casket nothing intervened except a heavj 
velvet and crape cloth which was attached to the pillars. 

Here, hour after hour passed the multitude, eager to gain a view of the casket of the dead. Pass- 

,u iik.lv mi, after a hasty glance, others filled their places, and still the multitude moved along. 

dque reached, every hat was raised, and with uncovered heads, often with tears in their eyes 

and half-suppressed subs, the people moved <»n. Late into the night thej continued to come in unbroken 

ranks, the old ami young, the lame upon their crutches, the infirm leaning upon their companions, ami 

babes in the arms of their mothers, until the final hours. 



- - : : 








CHAPTER VI 




FINAL CEREMONIES AT CLEVELAND. 

R.OMPTLY .ii co.30 o'clock on Monday, Sept. 26th, the ceremonies al thi 
began. The immediate members of the family and near relatives and fi 
about the coffin. At each corner was stationed a member of the Clevelai 1 I > 

Dr. J. 1'. Robinson, president of ceremonies, announced that the 1 
open In the singing of Beethoven's Funeral Hymn, b) the Cleveland 
whereupon the hymn was sung as follows : 

■■ Thou art gone to the grave, hut we «ill nol 
Though sorrow and darkness ■ • 
1 1 ha- passed through it- portal- he 

Ami the lamp of Hi- love i- tin lighl I 



The following passages of the Scriptures were then read b\ Uish 
diocese <>t < )hio : 






Man thai i- born of woman i- "i few days and lull 'it trouble. Id- comet h forth lil 
also .1- a shadow, and continueth not. 

1 il. thou hast been our dwelling-pl 
formed the earth ami the world, even from everlasting I 
Kit 11 ru. u' children of men. For a thousand years in I 

Bu iw is Christ risen from th di d I the first-fruil 

came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all di 
order: Christ the lir-t fruit-: afterward they thai are Chri 
ered up the Kingdom to God. even tin- Father; when he shall hi- 
reign, till In- hath put all enemies under ; 
arc tin.- (Kail raised up? ami with what body il ■■ 

Thou fool, that which thou sowest i- not qui 
that -hall be, hut bare grain; it may chance ofwl 
to even seed I Ii- own bodi Thi i 
glon it the terrestrial i- ano 
for one -tar differeth from another in - 
incorruption : it i- sown in dishoi 
bodj . ii i- raised a spiritual body. A- ■■ 

Now thi- I -.m . bi 
ruption. 

Behold, 1 shew you a mj si W 



G IRE/ELD'S ' AREER. 



it < .11 immortality then shall be 
ved up in victi 

law. 

tin- dead which die in thi 

THE PRAYER. 

v Houghton, pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, then offered prayer 

in \\- ds : 

:l, the weight lur hearts. Our beloved President is 

their fulfillment, are blighted. Jusl wh.i Th >u hasl 

■ II; foi Thou has nol informed ' Th* government; flu 

■ 

1 In will, and we praj for divine help tl doubl 

M y the dark clouds that hang over us burst in bl G re acknowled 

and wc trusl : II thai is wisest and all thai i- best We i 

nd Thine owi loi i Wi 

to dispel our .lark.,: thai although 

till Thou might not fail in Thine infinite mercy and I 
c valuable. 

lich stood oul so promim 
raj thai thi whi< li he loved and which he exemplified maj prevail in all the 

rid, and the things of the world are passing away, but in th 

' d, till all earth's calamities be over and past Regard in m 

id orphan children of .»ir departed ruler, as their hearts arc overwhelm. 

.,,,, Tin bosom Maj the; find peace and hope and joj in the 
.1, nil,, i loll upon those worth) sons, and maj ever) mem 
i will, nol mine, bi d 
affliction, maj draw 1 1» i - familv and 1 1 • i - Buffering Nation to a nearer relation- 

lispensations, granl thai we maj 
all hear thj •■ 'I unto them, if thou wouldsl believe thou shouldsl 

I -.ant Who li I I "|""' t<> fain"" ll " 

nly and unexpectedly. Bless his Cabinet Bless all who a 

andcontim 
■ . mi "111 ^ divi lutics of tlii- 

I and all thai rother in thi 

Lord G 
W. - k ll - 

At thia point th< ang : 

I tin -pirit. 

Who ' this mortal i haln ; 

■ 
I die 

gh 



THE REV. /All' BRRETTS DISCOURS, 



THE REV. ISAAC ERRETT'S DISCOURSE. 

The Rev. [saac Errett, of Cincinnati, then delivered an eloquent ad< 

Ami the an het - ■'•■ iah, tind the kin- 

His servants therefore took him oul of thai chariol and put him i n thi 
Jerusalem, and he died, and w .1- bui ied in 

\ .1 Jeremiah lamented forjosiah, ami all the singing nun and 
day, ami made them an ordinance in Israel; and, behold, th 

Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and I that which « 

Ami his deeds first ami last, behold, the> arc written in th 
lehold, tin- Lord, the Lord of Hosts, doth :..k. awaj I 
•.ta\ of bread, ami the whole -t;n of water. 

Tne might J man ami the man of war, ami the prophet, anil the ancient 

The captain of fifty, ami the honorable man ami the counselor, ami the cunning 

The voice said, Cry. Ami he said, What shall I crj ? 

All flesh is grass, ami all the goodliness (hereof is as the flower of the field. 

• s n ithereth. the flower fadeth, because the spirit <>t' the Lord bloweth upon it. - 
The grass w ithereth, the flower fadeth, but the word "four God shall stand foi 

This is a time tin- mourning, that has no parallel in the history of the world. I 
ever) hour, ami almost even minute some lite expires, and somewhere there are broke: 
learned to accept the unavoidable, and we pause a moment and drop a tear, and are a v. 
of life, and forget it all. Sometimes a life is called lor that plunges a large community i 

mourn the loss of a good king, or a wise statesman, or an eminei I 
martyr who has laid his life on the altar of truth and won tor himself an enviable immo 

But there was never a mourning in all the world like unto this mourning. I am nol 
that it is the result of calculations carefully made from such data as are in 

millions of the human race share in the sadness and the lamentations and sorrow and mournit i 
to-day. It is a chill shadow of a fearful calamity that has extended itself inl 
that has projected itself over vasl seas and oceans into distant lands, ami awaken 
us in the hearts ol other nations. 

It is worth while, my friends, to pause a moment and ask win this is? It i- 
triumphs of science and art within the present century, In means of which time and spai 
once tar distant and necessarily alienated from each oth 
merce and of social interests and of religious interests bring them 
former times. It is likewise, unquestionably, parth due to the fact tl 

fore the whole earth that sympathy witl 
and expressions of sympathy and . 

Yet this will by no means account for this marvelous and world-wide sympathy ol win. h i 
attributed to mere intellectual greatness, for there have been and th 
enthusiastic heart could claim for our beloved leader, it is bill 
been greater soldier-, there have been more skillful and experienced and ; 
political forces. There is no otic department in which he has 
higher and more intellectual greatness. It mighl not be considered 
it is rare in the history of nations thai am one man has 
as an educator, and a lawyer, and a legisl ,• tier, and a p. 

departments, and brought out such successful results a- 

life in which he has walked, and in ever) department of publii activity wh 
proper estimate ol' his character, and seek 1 Ids world-wit 

richness and integrity of hi, moral nature, and in that 
basis for everything to which w< 

I may state here what perhaps i- 

religious meetings was held in re 
orator, possessing none oft: 
ness i„ seeking to win s,,uls from sin to righteousness. The I 



G XRFIELETS CAREER. 

nd -aiJ tn him "Sir, 1 have been listening to your preai li- 
the dun and the highest interest of 
n and seek l> But, really, 1 don't 

that 1 disbelieve it. but I dare nut sat that I fulh and honestly believe it li I 

i.ilk. the min I thai 

andopinions 

rid, there was iiiu- :t — ia ■ o«.f and eternal 

ius Christ; that lie nevci would mislead; that an) 

iy, would nol ind that whatever might be the 

^ In i- 1 and walked after the 

in the uni\ . 

Id seized upon it after due reflection, 

i the minister in pled{ • his life, and turned 

nd that pure honest* and integrity, and thai fearless 

luM and right, went with him from that boy- 

• him with thi rfull) awarded to him from all hearts over this ia-i 

litions i.t' virtuous life between the \<<^ cabin in Cuyahoga and the White 

lerfull) rich and varied exp ing up highi he has touched ever) heart in nil this 

the representative of all hearts and lives in this land; not only tht teacher, but the 

he knew their wants, and he knew their condition, and he established legitimately the ties >>i broth- 

rith whom hi ntact I take it that this vow, lying at the basis of his character, the rock on 

:■ l.v the perpetual and enduring industn thai marked his whole career, made him al 

nvited and received, in everj act of his life, the confidence an, I trust, and love of all that 

i such an admirable harmony of all hi- powi i - 

al, intellectual, ami moral in hi- being; tin re was such an equitable distribute t 

that hi- nature looked out ever} »;n to get al sympathy with everything, and found 
• in all pursuits and all studies, so that he l>. jh hi- industn ami honest ambition, reulh em 

ild touch to which he would not respond in a way that made you know 

pic Mm could bring before him. there was mi objeel that 

and fullness of information somehow gathered, for his eyes were 

ami his brain was ever bus* ami equally interested in everything— the minute ami 

i valuable and practical knowledge thai made 
therein his whole beautiful ami symmetrical life ai 

m that line. an\ further details ni' a vcrj rcmarkabli 
ugh v ai iou« , hannels hen 
. the solemnities thai rest upon u olemn burial 

which we ought to er, and better men. And 1 want 

■ ,l mil mill to the people bul to those 
and all classi 

. i • Id wenl 

i it) . in hi- lo\ e I'.l 
ll I all 

!v adhered to hi* 
th all tin pi.. isting lite. 

political life, 

Now my friends, 

■ I want v .»ii t.i I....U at thai man. 

.! tin pi in, ipli - ill the Christian 

upying a pulpit. You are within a few miles 

1 : ' - '■ aftei 



THE REV. ISA \C ERRETTS DISCOURSE. 



y> 



It was when he was known to be occupying this position thai hi 
ate. It was with the full knowledge of all thai belonged to him in his < 
tin- was tendered him, and without an) resort to anj dishonorable in« I 

When the countn called to ;n™-. when the Union »..- in 
with holiest desire and .nnl.iii.ni to render some sen ice to ' 
Christian lil ■ him the honors thai Pell upon him no thi. k and fast and I 

k '' him the wondei ol the world, though he entered uiH.nili.it carcei wholl 
could onh « in lii- «:n by the honesty of his purpose and the diligence and faithfulness with wl 
tunit) t.. accomplish the work before him. 

Follow him from thai time until he was called from 

">eit hearts gathering about him without any effort on hi- part. The} kept him tl. 
would have kept him then id said so. He remit mil, by the > 

Senator, when there wi re other bright and strong and grand names men who wen cntitl 
gethcr worthy, in every way, to bear senatorial honors. Vet there were such cum nl 
love coming in and centering from all parts of the State, that tin- action of the Legislatun 
popular voice, when by acclamation they gave him that place, and • 

And then again when Ik- went to Chii 
isfied, and he had iLH-i\ cd that on which hi- heart was set, and looked with more than . 

education ami culture hail prepared him. When wearied out -ait' 
hearts of that great < \ Garfield. 

In spite of himself, ami against every feeling, wish ami pro; 
thi Nation responded with holy enthusiasm from one end of the land to 

* hiel Magistracy under circumstances which, however great the bitten 
acquiesce, but to feel proud in tin- consciousness that we had a Chief M 
world, and unto whom they could safely confide the destinies o( this mighty Nation. 

Now. gentlemen, let me say to you all, those ol you occupy 
those win. are railed upon to discharge the responsibilities of citizenshi| 
the life of our beloved .i dent i- that not onh i- it i 

cess, to consecrate heart and life to that which i- true ami right, and ah 
and right and the God of truth ami righteousness in holy wedlock, never to he dissolved. I 
lesson. 

This great, wondrous land of ours ; this might* Nation in ■ 

opening it- arms to receivi fi nil land people ot all languages, all religions, and 

brace ot' political brotherhood to blend them with us, to melt them into a common n 

melted and run over again in a new type of manhood it will incorporate all tin carious nal 

hood the world a spectacle ot" freedom and -to ngth and , 

before known. Let me say the permanency ot' the work and it- continual enls 

well a- intelligence, and making dominant in all the land those principli 

as we cling to that we are safe; and just a- we forget and depart from that w. , 

what has been accomplished in a mights lite like thi- we have an instance ot the ; 

heart to heart, and from lite to life, and from -late to -late, and finally ft 

everywhere, God -hall realize Ili- great purpc 

world are become the kingdoms ol our God and II is Christ; so that o\ 

join hands and -wear by the eternal < !od that they will dismiss all unworthy p ■ 

and in the inspiration oi the grand principles that Jesus Christ la 

ami right continually point us. 

I cannot prolong my remark- to 
There i- a voice to the Church in thi- death that I cannot pat 

There i- a tenderer and more awful voi 
hi- true lite and character were better developed and more perfectly known ti 

of anguish that rests upon the heart- ot' tin. 

pure lite, the gentleness, the kindness, and the man 

tes ami lor all that -haled in it- hospitalities. It i- ol all tl 
the home circle are called to yield him to the grave; to hear tl 
moving in the sweet circle ot' ho n from the li 

head- ot' hi 3 children and commanded the hi 



GARFIELD'S CAREER. 



ill 1 have spoken of, the education and training that 

that humble home in the wilderness, side by side with, him, in all hi- elevation, 

m step by step at he mounted up from high to higher, to receive the 

m him, left behind him, lingering "ii the shore, while be has passed over to the other 

npathy that is Jul- tu her, or the consolation that can strengthen her heart and give her 

imanhood and hat bravely kept step with him through all his wondrous 

it his friend and his counselor through all thi i of prosperities, and this 

there, his ministering angi i. his proph< less and his 

rbid ministrations from other hand to him the wi which 

iver him when his dying vision rested on her beloved form, 

thai should speak, when words could not be spoken, of a love thai has never died, and 

d the children who when the/ can remember all thai to him, 

urrounded wi( sympathy and with the world's affection, and able t<> treasure in 

id wondrous life, ma} be assured thai the eyes of the Nation arc upon them and that 

nuch to support and it is still a sad thing, and calls for our 

■ uch a father and are left to make their way through this rough world without his guiding 

B il that which makes thi- terrible to them now i- just that which, as the years go by, will make 

t., till tin- coming uar-. By thi- very loss which they deplore, and by all the 

! them in bl thy in the home circle, they will live over again ten thousand times all the 

! though dead, he will -till live with them; and though his tongue be dumb in the grave, it will 

I righteousness and truth. 

them in His arm- an 1 bless them as they need in this hour of thick darkness, an I bear 

■ their earthly pilgrimage unto the everlasting home where there 

any m ire |>iin. for the former things shall have forever passed away. 

i rlasting Father, who has promised to be the God ol the 

in His holy habitation, and whi les with us through all the dark ami 

■ 

t\ nanl and tru-t reposed in me many years ago, in harmony with a friendship that has 

p love thai has never changed. Farewell, my friend and brother; 

■ ii hast finished thy course, thou hast kept thy faith; henceforth there i- laid up for tl 

I fudge, will give to thee in thai day ; and nol unto thee alone, hut unto all them 

l>r. Errett spoke fort^ minutes, and when he closed a hush hung over the vast audience- 
Rev. Jabez 1 1 all then read General Garfield's favorite hymn, which was beautifully Bung by 

Ho reapers ol I 

Why stand w ith rusted blade 

I mil the nigh I draws round thee 

\\ h i -tan, I ye idli 

plain ! 



FINAL PRATER \ND BENEDICTION. 



up the heigl I 

\nd en I] low. 

p back no woi 
Thai hi hould know 

Be faithful to ili \ mi 

In sen i> e ol th_i I 

And then, .1 golden . ha| 
Shall i 

FINAL PRAYER AND BENEDICTION. 

At 11. 15 o'clock, Dr. CharlesS. Pomeroj offered the final prayer and pronounced the benediction. 
I It- spoke as follow s : 

and ever-blessed God. Thou 1 at. Clouds and darki 

judgment are the habitation of Thy throne. The eyes of ;ill the world 
the remains of our beloved chieftain in the tomb. I 

these solemn obsequies. And yet, O God, more impressive to us than all i- 1! 
God thinketh upon us. 

1 Grai ious Father, thai ■ 

died and rose again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus will G Him Wc thanl 

ol such a man 1- him we mourn to-day. \\V thank Thee thai Thou didsl give him to 
all that Thou hast now bestowed upon him I 

glorj ol Tli\ heavenly throne. Abide with u God; letThj 

mui li more intimate and intense than ours. Upon this mother and this widow, and the fatherless 1 hildi 

confidence to Thy divine and gracious care. I I God, be our shield. We thank Th e foi whol 1 

people through these hours of darkness thai h I in the light through Thy blessing in tli 

for ourselves. We bless Thee that Thou hast crushed oul skepticism under the power of this sorrow ; thai 
pli to pn ss toward the throne of heavenly -race in supplication, and that Thou art readj -till furtl 
whose God i thi Lord. Nov go with n-. our Father; abide with us. even a- a peopl 

11 1 of Inn,! ...in pours over the brink of death into the gulf of eternity, grant that we m y . like him foi whoi 

bereceivedin ig habitation r with the Lord. And all the praise shall be Thine, I 

ir. Amen. 

And now the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the lovi 
abide w ilh you all. Amen. 

There were a few moments of commotion and of preparation. The Washington Marini 
played "Nearer, my God, to Thee." Thefuneral procession moved from MMtnmirni.il Park al five min- 
utes before 12. The time occupied in moving the coffin from the pavilion to the funeral 
fifteen minutes. A corps of United States marines from the United S mer " Mil 

parallel lines from the easl side of the pavilion to the east entrance to the park, through which the coffin 
was borne on the shoulders of the United States artillerymen, under command of Lieutenant 
Second United States Artillery, to the funeral car. billowed by the mourners, who • 
1 iages. 






CHAPTER VII. 



. 



LAST RITES AT THE CEMETERY, 




the cemetery preparations had been made to place the bod} in the public tomb. The 
tomb i> a brown sandstone structure, of Gothic design, which stands fifteen feet back from 
the driveway, and some distance from the entrance gate. The main avenue leading to the 
remotest parts of the grounds passes a beautiful lake, on the other side of which the road 
gradually t<> the crest of a ridge, nearly one hundred feet above the lake. From this 
ridge a spur juts out toward the lake on the right. The top of this spur is an irregularis 
shaped plateau. It contains, perhaps, a quarter of an acre of ground, surrounded by a 
narrow path. This i> the spot given by the trustees of the cemetery to Mrs. Garfield as a 
burial-place i"'>r her husband. The place has been long reserved as the choice lot in the 
whole grounds. It overlooks the city and lake 

In front of the tomb was spread on supporting spars a black canop) trimmed with 

heavy fringe and tassels. The floral decorations of the tomb had been intrusted to the 

e teachers of the public schools. 'The walk from the door of the tomb to the drivewaj was 

The < arpel and the floor of the tomb were thickly strew n with flowei On < ither side of the 

pathv lid a thick carpel of evergreen twigs edged with immortelles thicklj strewn with flowers. 

of the procession a succession of heavy showers so delayed ii that the line had t.p 

1„. D i d the cemetery. And. forming in files on either side of the avenue for nearlj 

. military and civu societies made waj for the funeral car. The Stat.- militia were 

i emeterj . ami on either side of the drivewaj leading to tin' vault. 

n entered the gateway . whi< h was draped in black, with appropriate 

I i the words, "Come to Rest"; on one side were the words, "La} 

him l m we have learned to love," on the other, "Laj him to rest whom we have learned to 

ntre <■( the an h. 

•id. continuing the mournful strains it had kepi up during the entire 

I * Troop of Cleveland, who were the escort of the Pres- 

Behind them came the funeral car with its escort of twelve I nited States 

artilli flowed In a battalion of Knights Templars and the Cleveland Grays. The mourners' 

ning the guard of honor comprised all tin- pro< ession thai entered the grounds. 

• the vault, and drew up in line facing it with sabres presented. The car drew up 

mt, with the mournei • • and those "i the Cabinet behind. The band played "Nearer, mj 



I ( OMR \l>l S TRIBl II 



God, to Thee," as the military escort lifted the coffin from the car and carried it into the vault. 
local committee of reception, Secretary Blaine, Marshal Henry, and one nn«,, personal friends 
standing at either side of the entrance. None of the President's familj except two of the boys led 
i .i] i iag« s. 

A COMRADE'S TRIBUTE. 

Dr. J. P. Robinson, as president of the day, opened the exercises b\ introducing the Ri t . ]. II. 
Jones, chaplain of the Forty-second Regimen! Ohio Volunteer Infantry, \vhi< G Garfield ■ 

manded. Mr. |< >nes said : 

( lur illustrious friend has completed li i- journey n journej we must all soon ■ 

vn- the grand surroundings on thi* occasion, I am led to inquire, Was thi* man thi 

crown, for in the historj of this greal country there has been nothing lik. • 

country, Yet I thought, perhaps, speaking after the manner of nun. thai hi 

royalty • 

Id ■ was not, mj friends. It 1 offering to n king. Il is not, as w 

emperors, though he was born a prince and n iiit man, the greal Commonei ol 

Only a few miles from where we stand, le** than lift; years ago In- w.i* born 

ii hi i\ i\ . ami all he asks of you now i* a peaceful grave in the bosom of the land thai gave him birth. 1 

derful life and works. Time forbids, and historj will take can- of that, and youi children'* children will 

when we have passed awaj from 1 1 1 i ~- earth. Bui lei me saj thai when I was permitted with tli 

as one of a committee to receive his mortal remains, I saw from tl 

them in tears. Then I asked the meaning of all this For I saw the working-men ■ 

smoke all over their faces ; theii irs rolling down their braw 

What is the meaning of all thi*. because it casts down a working-man? II. was a » 

from hi* birth almost 1 [e has foughl hi* way through In p and the worl 

sympathy and brotherhood between them. In the small cottages as well as in the splendi 

shutters, and it may have been the only veil n poor unman had. as, with tears in hi 1 

interest has thi* poor woman in ihi- man: Sin- had read thai he was horn in n cabin, and thai ■ 

in the beech woods he helped to support his widowed mother. 1 

local professions and civic societies and the military, all ... 

through life, and you feel that he is a brother. He i*. therefore, n brother to vim in all th. 
But when a man dies hi* work usually follows him. W'h.n we senl Garfi Id 

pounds, lit- had a soul that loved hi* ran-, a splendid intellect thai almost benl the lai 

11* a mere handful of some eight) pounds, mostly of bones, in thai casket. Now I a-k. wh_i i 

man that did the deed. " Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord : I will repa_\ ." II. 

and the eternal disgrace which falls to the murderer and assassin, and h 

of tho world. Hut wlu-rc i* James A. Garfield, whom we lenl to you seven months . 

hi* inauguration, and witnessed th.- grand pageant which passed in frontof the Capitol 

Nation was held on that occasion. Ami now comes thi* unwelcome hut splendid exhibit 

world with regret; tor Secretary Blaine, in a business-like manner, made 011 1 thai 

world mourning the death of President Garfield and offering up »ym| '■'• 

g! and. bright, and brilliant man. Now that soul thai lo\ ed. thai mind that t 11 

come back, lor if thoughts live, will that pre, ion* thought 

and mighty deed* *till flourish in structure. We shall gel him back, fellov 

In conversation with one nearest and dearest to him. *he said when -' 
statesman, having reached the highest pinnacle to which man can 
was no promotion left tor her beloved but 1 1 him higher II 

immortality, not only of the soul but of the body, and thai 
was the hope that sustained him. It was with him in the war. and I 
baek : he was fortunate in every contest in being on the vicl 

daw of hi* existence, fought not because he himself personally expected t" li I ht» 

3 



G XRFIELD'S C \KEEK. 



id in die. but I will try to live." And then he u.i- nol conquered, except hv 

Vbraham can l>e President of the United States, and can be long absent 

have been called, and early, to the Paradise of <;.•,!. and hi- spirit look- down on us 

W . : 1 and the immortal hosts of patriots that stood for their country. Let me 

:,t Bible histon that killed more in his death than he did in his life, and 1 believe 

I . .1 field. I doubt, whether there is a page that equals this in sympathy and love, not only in this 

I anything like this • You brethren here of the South. I gre e t VOU to-dav. and 

• u- lav all our bitterness in the coffin of the dear man. Let him carry it with 

listurb the slumbers of the dead let us hue each other more and our countn better. 

unity on earth 1 hope the) «ill constitute a great family in 

U all in the end. Amen. 

As — ii .i- the chaplain had ceased t" speak, the German societies Bang Horace's famous ode, 
••Iir Vfter all who had assisted in the ceremonies had been formally' thanked by I>r. Rob- 

ntativeof the relatives, the exercises were brought to an end by the following prayer, 
P dent 1 linsdale : 

this da) teaches U6 the truth of what thou hast told u- in Tin word. The gra^ e is the last of 
th, dust to dust, and ashes to ashes." But we love the doctrine of the immortality of 
nd less life. I ur Father! we look to Thee now for Th) greatest blessing. Wi 

.1 the -alvatiou of tlie I. i our Sai iour. and the inspiration of the Hoi) Spirit, th. I 

.vith all vvho have been in to-dav'- great assemblage. 

Harrj and James Garfield then entered the tomb to take a last look at the casket that enclosed 

the remains of their father. They were accompanied by Colonels Rockwell and Corbin, and, <>n com- 

ut, James was sobbing bitterly. He picked up a little red flower from the steps of the tomb and 

ed it to hi> mother, who pressed it to her lips. Then the members t»l" the Cabinet visited the coffin 

for tin- last time, and, at i.^j o'clock, the sad cortege departed. 

Immediately afterward the people walked up to the evergreen carpet and picked up buds and 

ts "i immortelles, t" treasure up as mementoes "t the day and mournful event. The 

artillerymen came forth from the vault. Their duty had been performed. The carriages, the people, 

and the ti d aua\ and returned to the city. Thenoblest son of his State had been laid at rest. 




CHAPTER VIII 




THE FAMILY SORROW. 

AD was the reunion of the Garfield and Rudolph families in Cleveland at th< P 

funeral. It seemed touchingl} sad when it was remembered thai most of the nun and women 

present had shared the privations, with participating in the prosperity, of him who made 

the name ol Garfield illustrious. The} mourned a hero from whose nerveless hand the 

palm was snatched as s i as won. They were acquainted with his griefs, hi 

his struggles from his youth up, but of his prosperity, of his highesl 
little, savcwh.it they had heard. But, if the} derived few substantial benefits from the 
success of their great relative, they sympathized none the less with him in h 
meats. Watching closely his career, the} cheered him on at every step with apprei iative apj 
ami now, after all his successes ami failures, he was .had. ami they assembled at his tomb to do him 
honor tor the last time. Joy,, us in the joy of his family, the} are constant in its ills, ami from i 
ner of Ohio they came to weep with them. Nearly one hundred relatives, by blood or marriage, of the 

chad President came. All who could come of the uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters of the tu 

did come. These were sad meetings. The} mourned in the heart. During the afternoon and .\. ning 
oi the day preceding, and the morning of the funeral, no >s< of the relatives saw Mrs. Garfield and 
children at their temporar} home. These meetings were indescribabl) touching. Verj few ol them 

had seen her since she left with her husband, who. in the prime ol' his splendid manhood, w 

the oath of office as President oi the 1 nited States. The contrast between the two days ark- 

edly sad as to cause many of her visit, ,rs. despite their strong desire to mitigate rather thai 
aggravate her anguish, to lose their self-control, and to manifesl their deep emotions. Mi , Garfield 

was calmer while the\ were in her presence than her -nests. 



PRESIDENT ARTHUR'S FIRST OFFICIAL ACT A 
MARK OF SORROW. 

The first official act ol" President Arthur was the proclamation issued for a National Fi 
as follows : 



By (In- President of the United States oj America. 

A PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas, In his inscrutable wisdom it has plea< 
Garfield, late President of the United State-. And 

Whereas, It is fitting that the deep grief which tills our hearts should manifest itself will 
of infinite Grace, and thai we should bow before the Almighty and seek from Him th 
sanctification of our loss which he is able and willing to vouchsafe. 

Now. therefore, in obedience to sacred duty, and in accordance with thi 
of the United States of America, do herein- appoint Monday next, the twenty-sixth day ol - 



G XRFIELD'S C \REER. 



irth, t.. be observed throughout the I'nited Statet as 
II the people- u, assemble .... that day in tlnir respective pin 

in to the »ill ui Afmightj God ind of reverence and love 
la witness «licrc.ii I liuvc hereunto set nu hand and caused the seal 

i.er in the yi I the Independence 



v 1 1 1 » 1 I K \ \ K I 1 1 1 K 

THE NATIONAL GRIEF. 

The day of Garfield's burial, the 26th of September, t88i, will long be remembered as one ..1 
.f modern times. The Nation was clothed in the garb of mourning, and lamenta- 
led with eulog) , arose on every hand. No mourning so general and so spontaneous ever hap- 
the history of the world. The North and the South were united in the great affliction. 
iy of the Republic welcomed as "comrades" those who fought on •• the other side," but 
lamented the passing awaj of Garfield. Memorial services were held in every city, town and vil- 
li tlu- Union, and in the larger cities and town- greater emphasis was given to the solemnity of the 
- ry outward manifestation of grief and sorrow. The tolling of bells and firing of cannon 
almost universal. In many localities funeral services were held at the sain.- time at winch the) 
held in Cleveland, in which all classes participated. In the Smith the observance of the day was 
universal, and gatherings have ever been known as those which assembled to do honor to the 

irj of the illustrious dead. 

liry of the emblems of mourning was one of the signs of the depth ol tin- popular 

!• was not alone that the public buildings were draped in festoons, or that even the lines o| the 

■ nted long arrays of funereal Mack and white, hut the number of private houses that 

in their windows or over their doors the knots and wreaths of crape, or the draped Bags and por- 

I the humble shop, and private rooms beyond the public view that had emblems of mourning 

intended only for their occupants, indicated still more strongly the personal, as well as national grief. 

:v pulpit! fill admiration for the devout Christian and the upright man. 

In all the highways and homes men and women spoke in hushed tones, and mourned the loss ot then 

dent. 

THE WORLD'S SYMPATHY. 

ii. alone in our grief. From foreign land-, from all people, from royalty 
to humble peasant, 1 1 words of sympathy. In Great Britain, especially, was the funeral das 

with much solemnity. With w anlj heart the Queen expressed her sympathy with Mrs. 

ntiment ol hei subjects with us a- a people, in the following words: 

It m mor \i . Sept .'" 
upport ."i.i 1 He alon 

Till H} I I V 

n mam lands, far into distant dimes, services were held commemorative ol him 

the peei .f kings, the citizen-president, and the guide for the poorest peasant. Germany, bj 

rck, the king of Italy in the name of his people, President Grevj ol 

wed in grief at our country's loss. Tennyson wrote from the heart, 

-on. ,1 friend." The journals — the voices of the people— were 

Irawn from the life and death of him whom we have laid in a martyrs grave. 




M IBs* 



p 



^ 



CHAPTER IX 



AFTER THE BURIAL. 




\:\ OLI\ IK w I Mil I I HOLMES 

I. 

V.LLEN with autumn's falling leaf 
Ere yet his summer's n 1 was past, 

Our friend, our guide, our trusted chief, 
What words can match a woe so vast, 

Ami whose the chartered claim to speak 
The sacred grief where all have part, 

When sorrow saddens ever} cheek 
And broods in even aching hi 



Yrt Nature prompts the burning phrase 
That thrills the hushed and shrouded hall, 

The loud lament, the sorrowing j 
The silent tear that love lets fall. 



In loftiest verse, in lowliest rhyme 

Shall strive unblamed the minstrel choir, — 
The singers <>t the newborn time 

And trembling age with outworn l> 

\ ..m for pride, no place for blame — 

We tl i ni_r our blossoms on ll 
Pale, — scentless, — faded, — all, — we claim 

This only — what we had 



GARFIELUS CAREER. 



ef of all who mourn 
nd in one voice it- bitter cry, 
The wail t<> heaven's high arches borne 
Would echo through the caverned >k\ 



II. 



() happiest land, whose peaceful choice 
Fills with a breath it> empty throne! 

God, speaking through thy people's voice 
1 [as made that voice for once His own. 

ngry passion shakes the State 
Whose weary servant seeks for rest, — 
And who could fear that scowling hate 
W iuld strike at that unguarded breast? 

1 1. stands ; unconscious of his doom, 
In manly strength, erect, serene, — 

Around him summer spreads her bloom, — 
He falls, — what honor clothes the scene! 

How swift the sudden flash of woe, 
Where all was bright as childhood's dream 

As if from heaven's ethereal bow 

Had leaped the lightning's arrowy gleam. 

Blot the foul deed from history's page, — 

Let not Uk' all-betraying sun 
Blush for the day that stains an age 

When murder's blackest wreath was won. 



III. 

. h the sufferer lies, 
l ittle-ground of pain : 

tend- his pillow, si ieni e tries 
II,; ' in vain. 

how long ' 
■ 
While round his bed a viewless throng 
h morrow's changing tale. 



REJOICE. 

In realms the d< 

What myriads watch with tear-filled 
His pulse-beats echoing in their heai 

His breathings counted with their >i L . 1,^. 

Slew 1\ the stores of life are sp 

Yet hope still battles with despair, — 

W ill I Iea\ en not yield \\ hen knees are benl ': 
Answer, < I Thou that hearest prai 

But silent is the brazen skv, — 

On sweeps the meteor's threatening train,— 
Unswerving Nature's mute reply, 

Bound in her adamantine chain. 

Nol ours the verdict to decide 

Whom death shall claim or skill shall save 
The hero's life though Heaven denied, 

It gave our land a martyr's grave. 

Nor count the teaching vainly sent 

How human hearts their griefs mav share,- 
The less, ,n woman's love has lent 

What hope may do, what faith can bear. 

Farewell ! the leaf-strewn earth enfolds 
<>ur stay, our pride, our hopes, our ■■ 

And autumn's golden sun beholds 
A nation bowed, a world in tears. 






REJOICE. 



BY JOAQJ 1\ MILLER. 
Bear .me oit or the battle, foe 

I. 

From out my deep, wide-bosomed V. 

Where unnamed heroes hew the v 
For worlds to follow, wil ~t — 

Where gnarled old maple- make array, 



GARFIELUS C \REEJR. 



Deep-scarred from Red M to rest — 

Where- pipes the quail, where squirrels plaj 

Through t -. with nuts for toy, 

A i irth, clear-eyed and tall, 

A bashful boy, a soulful ! 

1} a> the si. ns of Saul — 

A boy, all friendless, poor, unknown, 
Yet heir apparent to a throne. 

II. 

Lo ! Freedom's bleeding sacrifice! 

like some tall oak tempest-blown 
le the storied stream he lies 

N'..u at the last, pale-browed and prone. 
A nation kneels with streaming eyes — 

A nation supplicates tin Throne — 
A nation holds him by the hand — 

A nation sobs aloud at this. 
Tin- only ilr\ ej CS in tin- land 

\ ,\ at tin- la-t 1 think arc his. 

Why, we. should pray. God knoweth best, 
That this grand, patient soul should rest. 

III. 

The world is round. Tin- wheel has run 
Full circle. Now . behold a l;i a\ e 

ath thr old. loved tree- is done. 

The druid oaks lift up and wave 
\ solemn welcome back. Tin- brave 

old maples murmur, every one. 
•• Receive him Earth '■" In centre land. 
in the i entre of each heart — 

As in the hollow of < >od's hand. 

Tin- coffin -ink-. And with it part 
All pari} hates! Now not in vain 
I I. bore his peril and hard pain. 

IV. 

Thi re fore, 1 e! 1 say 

Tin- hss f his life w.i- much — 

Thi- boj thai won, ,i- in ., i 

The world- he. irt ulteiK : ,i ton. h 



THE SOBBI&G OF THE BELLS. 






nderness and tears ; the page 
Ol historj grows ri< h from such : 
His name the Nation'-, heritage — 

But ( ) ! as some sweet angel's 
Spake this brave death that touched us all. 
Therefore, I saj . rejoi< e ' rejo 

Run high the flags ! Put In the pall I 
I- ' .ill is for the best for all ! 



THE SOBBING OF THE BELLS. 



MIDNIGHT, SEPTEMBER i 



BY WALT W Mil M \\ 



The sobbing of the bells, the sudden death-news everywhere, 

The slumberers muse, the rapport of the People, 

(Full well they know that message in the darkness, 

Full well return the sad reverberations,) 

The passionate toll and clang — city to city, joining, soundinj . 

Those heart-beats of a Nation in the night. 




. htcd b) jnd « 



XRFIELDS CAREER. 



A FAVORITE QUOTATION 



The following linet [V.mi Tennji quoted by President Garfield in 

j in the lamented Lincoln. Equally well they illustrate l>i- own noble life: 



A« some divinely gifted man 
Whose life in low estate began, 
And "ii ,i simple village green; 

Who breaks his birth's invidious bar, 
And grasps the Bkirts <>f bappj chance, 
Ami breasts the blows of circumstance, 

And grapples with his evil star; 

Who makes by force his merit known. 

Ami lives t" clutch the golden keys, 
tuld a mighty State's dei 

Ami shape the whisper of the throne. 

And moving up from high t.> higher, 
Becomes on fortune's crowning slope. 
The pillar of a people's I 

The centre of a world's de-ire. 



GARFIELD'S LETTER TO HIS MOTHER. 



GARFIELD'S LETTER TO HIS MOTHER. 

- „ ■ 

suffering, aiul the only communication penned in >Ai i I 



7U 3rC . 

'W^vL ^ tL^u c^i j± A± ^ 



COFYRHIITID, !"l 



THE 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS 



Leading Speeches of General Garfield, 



SUBJECTS OF GREAT NATIONAL [MPORTAN< I . 





y • a 



CHAPTER X. 




THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

LOW-CITIZENS : 

mil to-dayupon an eminence which overlooks a hundred years of national life; 
a century crowded with perils, but crowded with the triumphs of liberty and law. I 

nward march let us pause on this height for a moment, to strengthen our 
lith and renew our hope by a glance at the pathway along which our people have trav- 
eled. 

It i> now three days more than a hundred years since the adoption of the first written 

Constitution of the United States, the articles of confederation and perpetual union. The 

new Republic was thru beset with danger on every hand. It had not conquered a place in 

the family of nations. The decisive battle of the war for independence, whose centennial 

anniversary will soon he gratefully celebrated at Yorktown, had not yet been fought; the 

ling not only against the anus of a great nation, hut against the settled opinions of 

mankind — for the world did not believe that the supreme authority of the government could be safely 

entru dianship of the people themselves. We cannot overestimate the fervent lovi 

and the saving common sense with which our lathers made tin- great 

ment. When they found, after a short trial, that the confederacj of states 

of a vigorous and expanding republic, they boldly set it aside, and 

national Union, founded directly upon the will of the people, endowed with future 

.and with ample authority for the accomplishment of its great objects. Under 

•utioii the bound d, the foundations oforder and peace have 

\th in all the better elements of national life has vindicated the wisdom 

. and given new hope to their descendants. Under this Constitution our people long ago 

from without, and secured for their mariners and flag equality of 

I nd. r this Constitution twenty-five states have been added to the Union, with 

med and enforced by their own citizens to secure the manifold blessings of local 

( StitUtion ii' hi area fifty times greater than that 

ginal thirtei ind a population twent) time- greater than thai ol 1780. The sup, 

v ime at last under the tremendous pressure of civil war. We ourselves are 

in the blood and tire of that conflict, purified and made stronger 

ient. 

ih t!ie inspirations of its history in their 

idgment upon the conduct 

■ <1 their will concerning the future administration of 

that will in accordance with the Constitution, i- the para- 

1 this brief review it is ni N i •■! is resolutely 

iping the great possibilities of the future — 



THE I V \UGl R I/. ADDRESS. 



sacredl) preserving whatever has been gained to liberty u iment durin 

people have determined to lent- behind them all th >se bit! 

. settled, and the furl 
march. The supremacy of the Nation and its laws should be I 

cussion which, for half a century, threatened 

court of war by a decree from which there is n ■ appeal, that the Constitution and th pur- 

suance thereof are, and shall continue (<■ be, the supreme law 
and the people. This decree does not disturb the autonomy of the 

ssary rules of local self-government, but it does ii\ and establish t ; : 
Union. The will of the Nation, speaking with the voice of battle and through the amend 

has fulfilled the greal p ise oi 17/ . b) proclaiming "liberty throughout the land to all ih< 

tants thereof." 

The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the lull rights of citizenshi| 
political change we have known since the adoption ol v ititution in 1787. \ thoughtfu 
fail to appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions and people. It has 
ual danger of war and dissolution. It has added immensely t" tin 
people. It has liberated the master as well as the slave from a r« 
b ith. It has surrendered to their own guardianship the manhood of m 
and has opened to each one of them a career of freedom and usefu 
to the power of self-help in both races, In making labor more honoi 
to the other. The influence of this force will grow greater and bear richer fn 
No doubt the great change has been a serious disturbance to our Southern community, 
deplored, though it was unavoidable, but those who the changes should n 

our institutions there was no middle ground for the negi 
There ran be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the Uniti d S 
fullness of blessings so long as the law or its administration places the slightest obsl 
of any virtuous citizen. The- emancipated race has already made remarl 
tioning devotion to the Union — with a patience and gentlenes ir — they ; 

the light as (.'".1 gave them to see the light." The) are rapidly laying the material foui 
support, widening the circle of intelligence, and beginning to enjoy the : round the 

homes of the industrious poor. They deserve the genen nt of all g 

my authority can lawi'ulK extend, they shall enjoy the full and equal pi ( 

the law s. 

'The free enjoyment of equal suffrage is still in question, .kwX a Iran' 
aid its solution. It is alleged that in many communitii 
dom of the ballot. In so far as the truth of this 
places honest local government is impossible if thi 
These are grave alleg 

opposing the freedom of the ballot. Bad ivernmenl is certainlj 

prevented, but to violate the freedom and sanctity of the suffrage is more th 
which, if persisted in, will destroy tl iment itsel 

it be high I c impass the death of the king, it should be counted 1 

our sovereign power and stiile its voice. It has hern said that unsi 
repose of nations. It - ! i mid be said with the utmost emphasis, that this 
give repose or safety to th h within : 

keeps the ball >t free and pure by th 

ignorance in the voter cannot b I 1 field Tar wider than that 

present c indition of that ra :e. ft is a danger that lurks ind hid - ; : 

erv state. We hai e n 1 stand ird bj w hii 
by ign >rance and vice in the < ' 
of til vho make and unm i' 

ernment, can transmit their supreme authority I 



G [RFIELD'S CAREER. 



If that generation comes to its inheritance blinded b\ ignorance and corrupted by 

Republic will be certain and remediless. The census has already sounded the alarm 

iich mark how dangerously high the tide of illiteracy has risen among our 

children. I S tuth this question is of supreme importance, but the responsibility 

lavery did not rest upon the South alone. The Nation itself is responsible t« >r the 

. and i> under special obligations to aid in removing the illiteracy which it has 

•pulation. 

- ith alike, there is but one remedy. All the constitutional power of the 

n and of and all the volunteei the people, should be summoned to meet this 

iving influence of universal education. It is the high privilege and sacred duty ol those 

•<• their sui and lill them with intelligence and virtue, for the inheritance 

which awaits them. In this beneficent work, sections and races should be forgotten, and partisanship 

unknown. Let our people find anew meaning in the divine oracle which declares tha 

child shall lead them." for our little children will soon control the destinies of the Republic. M 

.\ differ in our judgment concerning the controversies of past generations, and 

hence our children will not be divided in their opinions concerning our controversies. They 

will surelj eir fathers and their fathers' God that the Union was preserved, that slaver} was 

i. and that both races were made equal before the law. We ma) hasten or we ma) retard, bat 

tnnot prevent, the final reconciliation. Is it not possible for us now to make a truce with time by 

pting its inevitable verdict? Enterprises of the highest importance to our moral and 

rial well-being invite us, and offer ample scope for the employment of our best powers. Let all our 

iving behind them the battle-fields of dead issues, move forward, ami in the strength ol liberty 

ami the . win the grander victories of peace. 

The prosperity which now prevails is without a parallel in our history. Fruitful seasons have 

it. but they have not done all. The preservation of tin- public credit, and the 

payments, ssfully attained by the administration ol" my predecessor, has 

<d our people to secure tin- blessings which the seasons brought. By the experience of commer- 

been found that gold and silver afford the only safe foundation lor a 

m. Confusion has recently been created by variations in the relative value ol the two 

nfidently believe that arrangements van lu- made between the leading commercial nations 

ie _' in ral use of both metals. Congress should provide that the compulsory coinage 

quired by law may not disturb our monetary system by driving either metal out oi cir- 

[f possible, such an adjustment should b<- made that the purchasing power of every coined 

equal to its debt-paying power in all the markets of the world. The chief duty 

rnment in connection with the currency of the countrj is to coin and declare its 

1 . doubts have been entertained whether Congress is authorized by the Constitution to make 

tender. The present issue of United States notes has been sustained by 

ir, but sueh paper should depend for its value and currency upon its c invenience in 

mpl redemption in coin at the will of the holder, and not up in its compulsory circulation. 

..but promises to pay money. If the holders demand it. the promise should 

•he national debt at a lower rate of interest should be accomplished without 

drawal of the national bank notes and thus disturbing the business of the country. 

position I have occupied on financial questions during a long service in Con- 

• ngthened the opinions I have so often expressed on 

. niment shall suffer no detriment which it may be possible for 

ent. 

deserve more attention from the government than they have yet 

and employment for more than one-half of our 

t part of all \ ernment lights our coasts for the 

iuld give to the tillers ol the soil the lights 

1 l .i manufactures are rapidly making us industrial!) indepem 



THE TA 1/ Gl R I/. WDRESS. 



and are opening to capital and labor new and profitable fi iltliv 

growth should still be maintained. Our facilities for transportation - 
improvemenl of our harbors and great interior water-ways, and b) the i 

in. The development of the world's commerce has le jent dcman 

sea-voyage around Cape Horn, b) constructing ship- 
the two continents. Various plans to this end have been su 
none of them has been sufficient!) matured to warrant the United S 
The subject, however, is one which will immediately engage the 
view to a thorough protection to American interests. We will 
or exclusive privileges in any commercial route, but, in the language of m) ; ■■■ 
be "the right and duty of the United States to assert and maintain 
any inter-oceanic canal across the isthmus that connects North and South Ai 
national interests." 

The Constitution guarantees absolute religious freedom. l 
am law i espe( ting an establishment of religion or prohibiting tin- fi i 
of the United States are subject to the direct legislative auth ( 

ernment is responsible for an\ violation of the Constitution in an) 
to the government that in the most populous of the territories the constitutional 
by the people, and the authority of Congress is set at naught. The Mormoi I 
the moral sense of mankind by sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the admin 
the ordinary instrumentalities of law. In mj judgment it is the dul ( 

the uttermost the conscientious convictions and religious scru] 
jurisdiction all criminal practices, especiall) of that class which desl 

gers social order. Nor can any ecclesiastical organization be safeh permitted to usurp in th 
degree the functions and powers of the national government. 

The civil service can never be placed on a sal - until it is 

good of the service itself, lor the protection of those who are entrusted with th 
against the waste of time and obstruction to the public business caused b) tl 
plaice, and for the protection of incumbents against intrigue and wrong. I shall, at the pi 
Congress to fix the tenure of the minor offices of the several executive departmenl 
grounds upon which removals shall be made during the terms for which the in 
appi linted. 

Finally, acting always within the authority and limitation- of.the *. 
the rights of the states nor the reserved rights of the people, it will be the puq 
to maintain the authority, and in all places within its juris 

the Union in the interests of the people, to demand rigid economy in all the expend 
ment, and to require the honest and faithful service of all executive 
were created not for the benefit of incumbents, or their supporters, but for the - lent. 

And now. fellow-citizens, I am ah. ait to assume th 
hands, and appeal to you for that earnest and thoughtful support which i 
as it is in law. a government of the people. I shall gn 
Congress, and of those who ma) share with me th 
And above all, upon our efforts to promote the welfare of this g 
erently invoke the support ami blessing of Almight) < i 



■• 







CHAPTER XL 



NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 






i, //■, //..«., having under consideration tin bill to establish an tducatic 
hunt, tiinl to apply the pi it- I't t/i, public lands to Ike i ducation .•/ ///. peopli ■ 





"- - K. SPEAKER: I" the few minutes given me, I .— 1 1 ; 1 1 1 address myself to two questions. 
The first is: What do we propose by this bill t<> give to the cause of education? and the 
second is: How d" we propose to give it? Is the gift itself wise, and is the mode in 
which we propose to give it wise? This arrangement will include all 1 have to say. 

And'first, we propose, without an) change in the present land policy, to give the net 
proceeds of the public lands to the cause of education. During the last fifteen years these 
proceeds have amounted to a little more than thirty-three million dollars, or one per cent. 
ni* the rutin- revenues of the United States for that period. The gift is not great, buf yet, 
in one \i«.-w of the case, it is princely. To dedicate for the future a fund which is now 
one per cent, of the revenues <>f the United States to the cause of education is, to \\\\ 
mind, a great thought, and 1 am glad to give it my indorsement. It seems to me that, in 
this act of giving, we almost copy its prototype in what God himself has done on this 
great continent of ours. In the centre of its greatest breadth . where otherw ise there mighl 
be a desert forever, He has planted a chain of the greatest lakes on the earth, and the 
exhalations arising from their pure waters ever} da) come down in gracious showers, and make that a 
blooming garden which otherwise mighf be a desert waste. And from our great wilderness lands it is 
proposed that their proceeds, like the dew, shall fall forever, not upon the lands, buf upon the minds 
of the children <if the Nation, giving them fur all time to come, all the blessing, and growth, and great- 
that education can afford. That thought, I sa) it again, is a great one, worth) of a -real nation: 
and this countrj will remember the man who formulated it into language, and will remember the Con- 
tat made it law. 

The other point is one of e\ en greater practical \ alue and significance jusl now than this thai I have 

I to. I- is this: How is this great gift to be distributed? We propose to give it, Mr. Speaker. 

thou. American system of education ; and. in giving it, we do not propose to mar in the hast 

harmony and beaut) of that system. If we did, I should be compelled to give my voice and 

against the measure; and here and now, when we are inaugurating this policy, I desire to state for 

If, and, as I believe, for man) who sit around me, that we do here solemnly protest that this gift is 

nut to destroy or disturb, hut it is rather to he used through and as ., pari of, md to he wholl) subordi- 

I t... what I venture to call our great American syste t' education. On tins question 1 have been 

pelted herel lifter with man) friends of education, here and elsewhere, man) who have 

thought it might he ^ ingress, in certain contingencies, to take charge "t the system of eduda- 

I will not now discuss the constitutional aspects of that question : hut I desire to say 

that all the philosophy of our educational system forbids that we should take such a course. And. in 

the few i! varded to me. I wish to make an appeal lor our system as a whole as againsl any 

: known tome. We look sometimes with great admiration at a government like Germany, that 



NA TION \l. AID TO EDUi. I TIO \ 



can command the light of its education to shim- e\ eryw here, that can enforce it> school laws e\ en w 
throughout the empire. Under our system we do not rejoice in that, bul we rather rejoice that here two 
forces play with all their vast power upon our system of education. The first is that of the local, muni- 
cipal power under our state governments. There is the centre of responsibility. There is tin- chid' 
educational power. There can be enforced Luther's great thought of placing on magistrates the duty 
of educating children. 

Luther was the first to perceive that Christian schools were an ah-. .lute necessity. In a celebra- 
ted paper addressed to the municipal councilors of the empire in 1524, he demanded the establishment of 
schools in all the villages of Germany. To tolerate ignorance was. in the energetic language of the 
reformer, to make common cause with the devil. The father of a famih who abandoned his children t" 
ignorance was a consummate rascal. Addressing the German authorities, he said: 

Magistral i rrtembei I formally commands you to instruct children. Thin di 

transgressed by indolence, by lack of intelligence, and because of overwork. 

The duty devolves upon you, n call fathers to their duty, and I 

suffei to-day. Give attention to your children. Many parents are like ostriches, content ■ 
longer. 

Now. that which constitutes the prosperity of a city is nol ii- treasures, it- strong walln il 
Hunt decorations. The real wealth of a city, its safety and its force, is an abui 
[fin our days we rarely moot such citizens, whose fault is it, if n<>t yours, magistrates, who I 
i shrubberj in the forest . ; 

1 ince is more dangerous for n people than the annus of an enemy. 

After quoting this passage from Luther, Laboulaye, in his eloquent essa} entitled •■/.'/ 
Limit es," pages -<>a and 205, says: 

This familiar and true eloquence was not lost it countrj which hn 

its duties the i stablishmenl and mainti 

The duties enjoined in these great utterances of Luther are recognized to the fullest extent by the 
American system. Bui thej are recognized as belonging to the authorities of the state, the county, the 
township, the local communities. There these obligations maj be urged with all the strength of their 
high sanctions. There may be brought to hear all the patriotism, all the morality, all the philanthi 
all the philosophy of our people ; and there it is brought to hear in its noblesl ami best forms. 

But there is another force even greater than that of the state ami the local governments. It is 
the force of private voluntary enterprise, that force which has built up the multitude .,t' privati 
academies, and colleges, throughout the United Slates, not always wisely, but always with enthusiasm 
and wonderful energy. I say, therefore, that our local |elf-government, joined to and co-operating with 
private enterprise, have made the American system of education what it is. 

In further illustration of its merits. I beg leave to allude to a lew facts of 
governments of Europe are now beginning to see that our sj stem is better and more efficient than t ; 
The public mind of England is now. and has been for several years, profoundly moved on the - 
education. Several commissioners have lately been sent by the British government t<> examine the 
school systems of other countries, and lay before Parliament the results of their investigatioi 
enable that body to profit by the experience of Other nations. 

Rev. J. Frazier, one of the assistant commissioners appointed tor this purpose, visited this country 
in 1 si,;, and in the following year made his report to Parliament. While he found much to criticise in our 
system of education, he did not withhold his expressions of astonishment at the important part which pri- 
vate enterprise played in our system, [n concluding his report he speaks of the United - "a 
nation of which it is no flattery or exaggeration to say that it is. if not the m .st highly, vet certain!} the 
most generally, educated and intelligent people on the globe." 

Hut a more valuable report was delivered to Parliament in 1868, bj Matthew Am. .id. one of the 
most cultivated ami profound thinkers of England. He was sent by Parliament to examine thi 
and universities of the Continent, and. after visiting all the leading »l irope,and making himself 

thoroughly familiar with their systems of education, he delivered a mosl searching and able report. In 
the concluding chapter, he discusses the wants of England on the subject of education No one who 
reads that chapter an fail to admire the boldness and power with which he points out the chief obsti 



GARFIEL&S CAREER. 



d. He exhibits the significant fact that, while during the last half-cen- 

msformation in the civil organization of European governments, 

: libert) and pr shackled with what he calls a civil organization, which is. 

I 

name 
. 

thai part which relates to educa- 
■ ..t all 
. • 
ital difficulty in thi 
i nt the work 

» tincnt, 
I what is the 
that the pub n the 

id, the publii has, and ex 

it could not exist withoul them, 
fith us, have at present unli the feudal 
ire the revolution. . . . 

to provide the country \s\\\\ an effective muni- 
tid, that mod ation 

In the earlv part of 1870 a report was made to the Minister of Public Instruction by Mr. C. Ilip- 
I learning, ami win- in the previous year had been ordered by the French govern- 
ment to visit th« 5 and make a careful study of our system of public education. In summing 
up his conclusions, at the end of his report, he expresses opinions which are remarkable i">>r their 
n member the character of the French government at that time; and his recommend- 
ignificant application to the principle under consideration. I translate his conclud- 

iii the l"ni! the admirable 

1 the lial>it " their own wants for themsi 

itribu- 
1 - who shall 1 
. which the} maj make of their authority. 
• twenty years would havi iblc, if the n 

in .1 1 apital, undei I wglj 

eved them from the • are "t thinkin 
on that path < ttion which will infallibly result in giv- 

- «lii. h -In- 1 

nations whic li » ill 1 
in out pro* inccs the old universities that will bi 

thi peopli in supporting ll 

.mi! publii ■ 

i b) ■ 

■ 

I 1. show how strongly the public thought of Europe is moving toward 

public education, as better and freer than theirs. I il" nol now discuss the broader political 

municipal governor tralized government. I am consider- 

nizing the educational work of a nation, not from the political stand- 

standpoinl of the si hool-house itself. 'This work of publit edut ation partakes 

11 human mind in it- efforts for culture. The mind must be ai 

. 1 \\..ik under the inspiration of its own desires for knowledge; 

helps, the fullest and highest success mast spring fr the 

elp. 

lucation i- that which draw- its chief support from the voluntary effort ol 

individual nd from those burdens of taxation which they 

nee proposed in this hill is to be given through the 



"\ THE CONSTITl TIOA 1/ \MENDMEX1 TO A 



channels of this, oui American system. The amount pi 
effort and to general emulation the different states and th< 
to earn the system on, and to weaken .ill thesi 
work is done for them without their own effort. G 
a commander in the work ol education. 

In conclusion, I sa\ that in the pending bill « 
of tin- states. We onl) require reports of what the) do w 
here and published for the information pie, will sp 

enthusiasm and emulation of our people. Th 
Bureau of Education, whose fruits have alread) bi 
House will set its seal oi approval on our Amei 
advancing and strengthening it. 

ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO 
ABOLISH SLAVERY. 

speech hi th, Hon 

Mr. Speaker : We shall never know wh) slaver) dies so hard in thi 
till we know wh) sin has such longevity and Satan is immortal. With i 
it has outlived the expectations of its friends and the hopi 
elsewhere to be in all the several stages of mortality, — wounded, moribund, 
raised by my colleague Mr. C rday, whether il 

[ know of no better illustration of il n than is found 

conspirator, Catiline, who, when his final battli it and lost, 

found far in advance of his own troops, lying amor 
but exhibiting in his countenance all that ferocity of spirit which I 
this body of slavery lies before us among the dead enemi< 
edness, but with its old ferocity of look, bearing the unmistakable m 

Who does not remember th.it thirty 
could be said with impunity in these hails on the subject of slavi 
remember the history of that distinguished pred 
rest, wh... with his forlorn hope of faithful men, took his life in his I 
tested against the great crime, and who stood bravely in his place until 
of Henry of Navarre, marked where the battle for ft 

We < -m hardly realize that this is the same ; 
scarcel) a man can be found who will venture to do more than falter out an 
testing in the same breath that he has no love for the d 
more Than supernal boldness from the city of 
sion to raise his voice in favor of slaver) for its own sak 
beauty and divinity, and only he. "How art thou fallen from 
How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the i 
slain by thee ; many proud ones have humbled them 
ical sea these victims of slavery lie like stranded v 
lately did its advocates, with impious boldness, mail 
as divine 1 II was another and higher I 
pensing its mercies to a benighted race, and destined to I 
West. " In its mad arrogance it lifted its hand to 
day it ha- been a "fugitive and nd upon the earth." I 

since then, been "seeking rest and finding i 



74 



GARFIELD'S < AREER. 



It has sought in all the corners of the Republic to find some hiding-place in which to shelter itself 

: \ es. 

sylum in the untrodden territories of the West, but, with a whip ol scorpions, indig- 

: thence. I do n» >t believe that a loyal man can now be found who would consent 

enter them. It has no hope of harbor there. It found no protection or favor in the 

the freemen of the Republic, and has fled for its last hope of safety behind the 

Constil ition. We propose to follow it there, and drive it th< S itan was exiled from 

But now, in the hour of its mortal agony, in this hall it has found a defender. 

Mr. Pendleton , for 1 gallant and able man. plants 

of his darling, and bids defiance to all assailants. He has followed slavery in its 

-. until at : reached the great temple where liberty is enshrined — the Constitution of the 

and there, in that last retreat, declares that no hand shall strike it. It reminds me "t 

that celebrated passage in the great Latin poet, in which the serpents of the sea. when they had destroyed 

ns, tied to the heights of the Trojan citadel ami coiled their slimy lengths around the 

ithe tutelar goddess, and were covered b\ the orb "f lu-r shield. So, under the guidance >>t my 

Mr. Pendleton . slavery, gorged with the blood of ten thousand freemen, ha- climbed to the 

rican nationality, ami Coiled itself securely, as he believes, around the feet of the 

i under the shield ol" the Constitution of the United Slates. We desire to follow it 

there, and kill it beside the very altar of Liberty. It- blood can never make atonement for the 

the gentleman has gone further. II.- is not content that the snaky s irceress shall be merely 

if the Constitution. In his view, by a strange metamorphosis, slavery becomes an 

: takes up its abode in the very grain and fibre of the Constitution : and when we 

would striken h "I can not point out an\ express clause that prohibits you from destroj ing slav- 

but I find a prohibition in the intent and meaning of the Constitution. I go under the stirtace. out of 

genius of it, and in that invisible domain slavery is enshrined, and there is no power 

iblic to drive it thence." That I may do no injustice to my colleague, I will read from his 

rday the passage to which I refer: 
1 M \ hi 

. which 1 have jusl quoted i- to-daj free 
which provides Uial the suffrage of the several states in the Senate shall be 
equality by any amendment of the Constitution without its Consent; the other relates to 
1 limitations." 

a than the letter of the Constitution; and tli.u it is to be 

. i make it an ihibited bj tin lettei •>! the 

i 

litations and Wit) i- it tli.u this change 

iblicanism lies at the ver) foundation ol eminent, and 

: I s.n th.a if three-fourths ..i the 
■ would have the righl !•■ 

ed in the- 

lb- goes behind the letter of th.- Constitution and fmds a refuge for slaver} in its intent, and with 

ht to deal in the way of amendment, 
than the spirit and intent of the Constitution. lb- has announced a 

mi will lay claim. He has found a domain where slavery 
13 human law than the life of Satan In the sword of Michael, lb- has marked 
vered continent, in his response to the question ol the gentleman 
in]. I will read it : 

ili.- law which li.-s behind 
1 

trything in the words and phrases of the Constitution that toil. ids an amendment 



ON Till'. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO ABOLISH SLAVERY. 



abolishing slavery, he goes behind all human enactments, and far away, an 

liiuls a primal law which overshadows states, nations, ami constitution . 

ami by its s^ ilcimi sanctions one human being can hold another in perpetu human 

ingenuity lias never gone further t<> protect a malefat tor or defend a i rime. I - : ; dl 

with my colleague on this point, for in that high court to which In- appeals eternal ; 

freedom, and slavery has never entered. 

I now turn to tin- main point <>f his argument, lie has given us the kej 
Constitution in the three words which the gentleman from Rhode Island Mi 
last evening. Upon those words rests the strength or weakness of his position, lie ■ 
stitiitii»ii of the United States ;i> .( ■• <<>nip(trt of confederation" 

If I understand the gentleman, he holds that each state that ii 

capacity, as the source and fountain of power, the states, each for itself, ratil i d I .• *. 
the Convention had framed. What powers they did not grant, they reserved. The) did 
the Federal government the righf to control the subject of slavery. Thatright st 
severally. Heme no amendment of the Constitution by three-fourths of the • 
slavery in the remaining fourth. Hence no amendment h\ the modes pointed out in 
reach it. This. 1 believe, is a succinct and just statement of his argument. The - 
upon the sovereignty of the states. Are they sovereign and independent i 
shall endeavor t<. answer. 

I appeal t. . the facts of historv. and to bring them i learl) before us I affirm : 

I. That prior to the |th day of July, 177''. these colonies were neithi 
Their sovereignty was lodged in the crown G Britain. I believe no man will 
admitted in th.- first Declaration of Rights, put forth b) the Revoluti *. 
Philadelphia in 1771 to pray for a redress of grievances. That bod) 1 
sovereignty of the colonies was lodged in the crown I tain. 

II. On the ithofjuly, [776,1 nty was withdrawn from th( B 
people of the colonies, and lodged in the Revolutionai ( 

independent. Neither Virginia, New York, n M husetts dei 

the crown of Great Britain. The declaration was made, not even by all 

the name and In the authority of •• the good people of the cold 

In the following memorable declaration the sovereignty was :■ 
Britain to the people of the colonies: 

\\ therefore, th 
Supreme Judge of the world foi 
solemnly publish and declare thai thesi I 
absolved from .ill all 
and oughl to i 
tracl alliances, establish i 1 to do all oth< i acts and thing* whii i 

In vindication of this view I read from the i j 
( Commentaries : 

.lonies .li.l not severally ai I 
had previously formed incipient 

The declaration of the indepi n 
.1 the t nite I - 
as in a prior declaration ol 

chosen by them. It was 

:ed under the charl 
inal, inherent sover 
:. new government w I 
hnd presumed 

t, d, it »vas in pursuan 
whole i"i" the benefil of the whole. 

The people of the United Colonics n 
giance to the British cro 



G iRFIELD'S C \REER. 



.,11 political connections \\itli 01 
ititutional view of the nutter bj courts 

When these people of the colonies became free, having withdrawn the sovereignty from the 

I Britain, where did they lodge it? Not in the states : but so far as they delegated it at 

all. they lodged it in tin- Revolutionary Congress then sitting in Philadelphia. My colleague dissents. 

to the language of this distinguished commentator, on page 200 of the same 

volume : 

,1-. 11. . 1 «.i~ it done 
U itself, if it i- to bi considered as a national act, in what 
1 in what manner di I I tlii> national powei ; The true 

which were in tlnir nature national, to that i 
>i in a nation. 

Mr. Pi kdleton : 1 desire to ask m\ colleague from what power the delegates who sat in that 
derived their authority ti« make tin- declaration; whether they did not derive it from tin- . 

the gentleman prefers that word, and whether each delegate did not speak in the 
rnment which authorized him to speak there? 

Mr. GARI 11 11' : I say. in answer to the point the gentleman makes, as I have already sail!, and 

in tli of this distinguished commentator, that the moment the Revolutionary Congress assumed 

gatives, ami the people, by their silence, consented, that moment the people of the colo- 

tituted a nation, and that Revolutionary Congress became the authorized government "i 

the Nation. But the declaration was made "by the authority of the good people." and hence it was 

ation. 

Mr. I'i kdi 1 i"\ : Will the gentleman permit me to ask him whither, from that moment, they 

me the representatives of the Nation, or whether they Mill retained their positions as representatives 

of ti. 

Mr. Garfii ld : They were both. They were still representatives of the states; bul the new 
function of national representatives was added. They then took upon them that which now belongs to 
Mian, the two-fold quality of state citizenship ami national citizenship. The gentleman is 
subject to two jurisdictions ; and so win- they. 
I shall still further fortii\ my position l>\ reading from the 203d page of the same volume: 

most purposes at an antecedent p 

■in over it. 1 rented and acting l>\ the general const 

1 hi Id nol be, utll defined. Hut -till its 

id its controlling power ..mi- tin- states was in most, if not all, 

III. ' >:t the fust day of March. 17S1, the sovereignty of the new Nation was lodged, In the 
( nfederation." The government thus formed was a confederacy. Its con- 
1 :1\ hi- styled a "Compact "i Confederation," though bj its terms it established a 
nial union," anil leii small ground for the doctrine of secession. 

I\ . ( m tin twenty-first day of June, 1788, our national sovereignty was lodged, by the people, 

in thi States, where it still resides, and tor its preservation our armies are 

In all tin- 1 development, from colonial dependence to full-orbed nation- 

;; omnipotent. They have abolished, established, altered, and 

.! e. 

urity of liberty, they chose t" distribute the function rnment. Tiny 

local and municipal affairs, and endowed tin- Federal Republic with 

They made the Constitution. Thai great charter tells its 

domestii tranquillity, 
h ea and ..in posterity , do 

liter into a league "i form a "compact of confederation." 



0J\ THE CONSTITUTIONAL \MENDMEN7 TO \BOLISH SLAVERY. 



If the gentleman looks, then, for a kind of political "apostolic si 
eignty, he will find thai neither colonies nor states were in the royal line; but this 
First, the Crown and Parliamenl of Greal Britain; set ond, the Revolutionai ( 
cles of Confederation ; fourth and now . the Constitution of the I United States ; and .ill 1 1 * i - 
n\ of the people. 

Now . if no one of the colonies was ovi r< ign and independent, when and how i 
become so? The gentleman musl show us by wha( acl it w nd where I 

I think I have shown that his position has no foundation in histon . and the argumci 
tn the ground. 

In framing and establishin ( nstitution, what restrictions were laid upon the pi 

lutely no human power beyond themselves. No barriei - confined them bul the law 
of God, their love of justice and their aspirations for liberty. Over that limitli 
at will, and oul of such materials as their wisdom selected the) built thi 
ment. That Constitution, with its amendments, is the latest ami the 
erejgnty. The hour is now at hand when that majesl benignant purp 

still further the "blessings of liberty," is about t<> put forth another oracle; i- ah ml uni- 

versal freedom shall he the supreme law of the land. Show me the power that i- aulhnri 

The lapse of eight} years has not abated one jot or tittle from the original 
ican people. The\ made the Constitution what it is. They could have made it otherw 
can make it otherwise now. 

lint my colleague Mr. Pendleton] has planted himself mi the intent of the Constituli 
that point I ask him In what means the will of this Nation reaches the citizen with il 
as that will is revealed in the logical and grammatical meaning of the words and phrasi - of tl 
Constitution. Beyond this there is. there can he.no legal force •■, potency. I: I 
granted in the Constitution be in any wa\ abridged or restricted, such n 
just meaning of the instrument itself. Any other doctrine would overthrow the whol 
dence. What are the limitations of the amending power? Plainly and only tl 

Thai no amendment which mai Ik- made prior t., tin- year iSoS shall ii 
ninth section of the first article; and thai no state without 

i 

The first restriction, being hounded by the nidus o 

operative; the last is still binding. The gentleman Mr. Pendlel 

sentence is restrictive; hut he would have us believe there i- something im; written ,': Hum 

quid, a kind of exhalation rising out of the depths of the Constitution, that ha- the p 
the hand of the people of this great Republic in their attempt to put awaj an evil I 
the Nation's life. He would lead us in pursuit of these intangible shadow-, would : 
dominion of vague, invisible powers that exhale like odors from the Constitution, but ai 
than the Constitution itself. Such an ignis faluus I am not disposed to follow. ■ 
to a hopeful future for human slavery. 

I cannot agree vyith m\ colleague, and the distinguished gentlcm 
Boutwell . who unite in declaring that no amendment to the Constitution can ! 
in conflict with its objects as declared in the preamble. What special immunil 
paragraph? Could not our forefathers have adopted a different preamble in th< 
not have employed other word- and declared other objei 
could have made a different preamble, declaring other and dilVen 
other objects in our amendments. The preamble is it-elf amendabl 
StitUtion, excepting only the one- already refen • 

But this point is not necessary in the case we are now considering. Wi 
preamble to enable us to abolish slaven . It is only by the final overthi 
the preamble can be fully realized. By that means 
tranquillity, and secure the bid 

The gentleman Mr. Pendleton] puts another case which I wish to notice. lb says that nine ol 






G iRFIELD'S < AREER. 



t h t . t ginal colonies adopted the Constitution, and by its terms it was binding only on the nine. 

three-fourths of the states should pass this amendment it would not bind the other fourth. 

In commenting upon this clause, Judge Tucker, of Virginia, in liis appendix to Blackstone, says 

that it' the four colonies had not adopted the Constitution they would have been a foreign people. The 

„ r j t , / ralisl hold a different dot trim-, and fall back upon the original right of the Nation 

t » preserve itself, and say that the nine states would have had the right to compel the other four to come 

in. But the question is unimportant from the fact that they did come in and adopt the Constitution. 

The nee ratified, and ^obligations once taken, they became an integral part of an indivisible 

. as indivisible as a state. 

The argument is irrelevant; for the mode of adopting the Constitution is one thing; the mode 
pointed out in the Constitution for adopting amendments to it is quite another. The two have no m 
sarv relation to each other. 

I therefore agree with m\ colleague from the Columbus district Mr. Cox . that except in the 
two case- of limitation, two-thirds of Congress, and three-fourths of the states can do anything in the 
way of amendment, being hound only by their sense of duty to God and the country. The field is then 
fully open before us. 

On the justice of the amendment itself no arguments are necessary. The reasons crowd in on 

To enumerate them would he a work of superfluity. To me it is a matter of great surprise 

that gentlemen on the other side should wish to delaj the death of slavery. I can only account for it on 

the ground of long-continued familiarity and friendship. I should he glad to hear them say of si., very. 

their beloved, as did the jealous Moor: 

more men." 

Has si,,- not betrayed and slain men enough? Are they not strewn over a thousand battle-fields? 
Is not this Moloch ahead) gorged with the bloody least? [ts best friends know that its final hour is fast 
approaching. The avenging gods are on its track. Their fen are not now, as of old. shod with wool, 
for slow and stately stepping, hut winged like Mercury's to hear the swift message of vengeance. N i 
human power can avert the final catastrophe. 

I did not intend, Mr. Speaker, ever again to address the House on the subject of slavery. I had 

hoped we might, without a struggle, at once and forever remove it from the theatre of American poli- 

and turn our thoughts to those other and larger fields now opening before us. But when 1 saw the 

hold and determined efforts put forth in this House yesterday for its preservation, I could not resist my 

inclination to strike one blow, in the hope of hastening its d< I. 



THE REVIVED DOCTRINE OF STATE 
SOVEREIGNTY. 

/« ,k ■ "'"■ 

Chairman : "To this favor" it has come at last. The great fleet that set out on the 18th of 
., w j t h .,ii it, f, .,,,,1 armament, is so shattered that now all the valuables it carried are 

rked in this little .raft, to meet whatever fat.- the sea and the Btorm mav oiler. This little hill con- 

,m of almost everything that has been the subject of controversj at the present session. 

in detail, hut' will speak only of its central feature, and especially of the opinions 

ture has brought to the surface during the present s.ssi.m. The majority 

pted what I consider ver) extreme and dangerous opinions on certain impor- 

Tl„v have not onl) drifted ha. k to their -.1.1 attitude on the subject ol 

it they have pushed that do. trine much further than most of their predecessors ever 

wen | '■ i pt during the period immediately preceding the late war. 

. that nothing short of actual quotations from the record 
wi ll . ,hall read several extracts from debates at the present s,-ssi,,n 

nd group them in the ordei of the topi, s dis, ussed. 



THE REVIVED DOCTRINE OJ STATE SOVEREIGNTY. 



Senator Wallace >.i\ s : 

The I il ton mal 

the powei to create and hold " Ha/ioual 
il tramples under foot the vcrj I 
republic. This is the plain purpose ol the men now 
g Republicans now are shaped. 

There ore no notional vol 
laws, and national citizenship is not requii 

[f there be such a thing, then, as a " nation 
Federal government, ... ii ii suits our friends on the ol 
not quality them. 

Representative Clark, ol Mi ouri, saj s : 

lited States has no voters. 

Senator Maxej . of Texas, saj s : 

It follows assurelj ns a- grows and water runs " thai 

under the state whose voters assemble ; vvhos 
ami wa> freelj exercised long before its adoption. 

Senator William-., of Kentucky, says: 

The Legislatures of the states and the peopl< 
Congress. They receive their commissions from th and when th 

resignations to the governoi . and nol to the President. Th 

Senator Whyte says : 

There are no elections ofUnil IS 
are the people ... the Mat,., and their members of the House of R 
sent the people of the states, w hose agents thej are. 

Mr m, l ud Do I understand him to saj thai tin S overnmcnl of I 
where within a state: Do I understand him ... saj thai 
Supreme Court of the United SI 

Mr. Robe son : Certainly 1 do. 

Mr. Me Lane says : 

n of law which we are .<h-^ to repeal U uncoimtilulii 
fortheUnil keep the peace " anywhere in the states, eith. 

mmon with gentlemen on this sid ild be highly 

that law used the phrase " to keep the p 
It is nol a possible thing to have a bn at h ol thi i 

Senator WI13 te saj s : 

Sovereignty is lodged witl where it had il 

the creature of thai sovereignty. TheFedcn 

the states. 

The states were in existence long bel 

The state vcrnments are supreme, b, inh 

legislation and administration. 1 
interference therewith is utterly unwarrantable. 

Senator Wallace say s : 

Thus we have ever; branch of the Federal government, II 
upon the stale governments, and all resting finally upon tin 
laws. 

Senator Whyte says : 

No, Mr. President; it never was declai 
In the formation and adoption of the ( 

These are the declarations of seven distinguished members of the pi 
set forth in the above quotations ma} be fairly regarded as th. 
sented in this Capitol. 

Let me summarize them : First, there are no 1 



G \RFIEI D'S < AREER. 

lusive right to control all elections of members "i Congress; fourth, 

ntatives in v tre Btate officers, '>r. as they have been called during the 

i the state; fifth, the United States has no authority to 

anywhere within .1 state, and, in fact, has no peace to keep; sixth, the I nited States is 

ed with sovereign power, but is a confederacj of states ; seventh, the states are sov- 

supreme powers; they arc older than the Union, and as independent 

ernments created the Union, and determined and limited the powers of the 

i-nt. 

embody the sum total of the constitutional doctrines which the Democracy has 
( Thej form a body of doctrines which 1 do not hesitate 

me than was ever before held on this subject, except, perhaps, at the verj crisis ol 
and rebel li 

I they have not been put forth as abstract theories of government. True t<> the logic "i their 

. tin- majority have sought to put them in practice by affirmative acts <>i' legislation. 

me enumerate these attempts: First, they have denounced as unconstitutional all attempts ol 

the United States to supervise, regulate, or protect national elections, and have tried to repeal all laws 

on the national statute-book enacted for that purpose. Second, following the advice given In Calhoun 

in his political testament to his party, they have tried to repeal all those portions of the venerated Judi- 

act of 1833 against nullification, the act of [861, and the acts amendatory thereof, 

which provide for carrying to the Supreme Court "f the United Slates all controversies that relate to the 

duties and authority of any officer acting under the Constitution and laws of the United States. Third. 

they have attempted to prevent the President from enforcing the laws of the Union, by refusing neces- 

and by forbidding the use of the arm) to suppress violent resistance to the laws, by which, 

if thl 1. the) would have left the citizens .an\ the authorities of the st ale-- free to obey or 

\ the laws of the Union as the) might ch< 

■ I ( lirman, is a fair summary both of the principles and the attempted prac- 
• which the majority of this House has treated the countr) during the extra session. 

[uitting this topic it is worth while to notice the fact that the attempt made in one of the 
pending in this H to < urtail the jurisdiction of the national c lurts, is in the direct line ol 

the .. ! v. Calhoun. In his Discourse on the Constitution and Government 0/ tht United 

iblished In authority of the Legislature of South Carolina in 1851, he sets forth at greal length 
ic that our> is not a national government, hut a confederacy ol sovereign stales. and then pro- 
point "tit what he considers the dangerous departures which the government has made from his 
i. institution. 

The first and I • i"iis of these departures In- declares to he the adoption of the twenty-lilth 

r) Act ol 1 ; s w. b) w hich appeals were authorized from the judgments ol the su] 
•■< the Supreme Court of the United States. II,- declares that section ol th< 

■\ makes the supreme court of a " sovereign " state subordinate to the judicial 

: and he recommends his followers never to rest until they have repealed, not 

what he calls the still more dangerous lav of 1833, which forbids the courts of 

,i an officci of the United States done in pursuance of national 

has won the unenviable distinction of making the firsl attempt, since the 

, ■ ,1 put in practice his disorganizing and destructive theor) of government. 

nd attempted practice of the present Congress are erron- 

II state bricfl) the counter-propositions : 

l, that the Constitution of the United States was not created by the governments of 

rdained and established b) tin- onl) sovereign in this countr) —the common superior 

the people themselvi I, that the I nited States is a nation. 

defined ami limited by the Constitution, operate upon all the 

ity and upon all the people: third, that In its legislative, executive, ami 

vith adequal enforce all the provisions of the Constitu- 

ndividuals ill limes and all places within the Union. 



THE REVIVED DOCTRINE OF STATE SOVEREIGNTY. 



These are broad propositions; .mil I take the few minutes remaining to defend 
sthiitiim.il history of this country, or, rather, the histi ment in this 

is comprised in four Bharply defined epoc hs : 

First. Prior to the fourth <l.i\ ol July, 1771 . overeignty, s 
country, was lodged in the crown ol Greal Britain. Ever) membei 
in it citizens, but subjects) drew his legal rights from the crown ol ( ■ 
in this country was then ln-Kl mediately or immediately by grants from thai 
authority then existing or exercised here flowed from the head of the British en 

Second. On the fourth day of July, 177''. the people of these colonii 
inherent right as sovereigns, withdrew the sovereignty from the crown ol G 
to themselves. In so far as they delegated this national authority at all, they d< 
nental Congress assembled at Philadelphia. Thai Congress by general consent bi 
government of this country executive, judicial, and legislative in one. Duringthewh 
ence it wielded the supreme power of the new nation. 

Third. On the first daj of March, [781, the same soverefgn | 
authority from the Continental Congress, and lodged it. so far as t'. 1 al all, with th< ( 

eration, which, though a league of states, was declared to be a perpetual union. 

Fourth. When, at last, our fathers found the Confederation too weak and inefl 
poses of a great nation, thej abolished it, and lodged the national authoritj . enlarged and strengthen) 
new powers, in the Constitution of the United States, where, in spite of all assaults, 
these great acts were dune by the onlj sovereign in this Republic, the people tin 

That no one may charge that I pervert historj to sustain my own I 
fact that not one of the colonies declared itself free and independent. V 
setts threw nil' its allegiance to the British crown as a colony. The greal declai 
even hs all the colonies as colonies, but il was made in the name and hs authoritj of "all 
people of the colonies" as one people. 

Let me fortify this position by a great name that ssill shine forever in tl 
Southern sks- — the name of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of South Carolina. Hi 
her oi" the Constitutional Convention of [787, and also a member of the Conventi 
which ratified the Constitution. In this latter convention the doctrine of 
champions : and their attempt to present the adoption of the Constitution, becau 
national government, was rebuked by him in these memorable word-. I 
recorded in Elliott's Debates: 

This admirable manifesto, which, for import i 
futes the honorable gentleman's doctrine of the indh idual sovereignty and indi 
the several states are nol i reciting, in 

independence, ind thi tyranny which compelled u 
the representatives of thi I of Amerii .1 in 1 •■ neral < 

he rectitude o( our intentions, do in the name, and bj the authorit 
and declare thai these united colonies are, an I 

The separate independence and individ 
patriots who framed 1 1 1 i - declaration. The several »l 
to impress this maxim on America, thai our freedom and-indepi 

nor independent. Lei us, then, consider all attempt 
individually independent .1- .1 species ol politii 
tresses. 

For a further and equallj powerful vindication of the same view, I 1 
Justice Story, vol. i., p. 197. 

In this same connection, and as .1 pertinent and ell"e 

under review, I quote from the firsl Annual M In, than ss 

generation studied the origin of the Union more profoundly. He said: 

Our states have neither more nor less power than tli 
ever having been a state oat of the 1 nion. rhi original 

ndence, and the new ones each came inl 
1 in it- temporary independence, » 



GARFIELD'S < AREER. 



e. Therein the •• united 

ire their independ- 

■ heir iniiiu.il action before, at the time, 

nd their libert) . I>> 
I libert) it hat. Thi ;a than anj of the 

and in turn the L'nion threw ofl 
'• 

thej entered the Union ; 

In further enforcement of the doctrine that the stale governments wen- not the sovereigns who 

treatment, I refer t" the great decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the 

( I G a, reported in 2 Dallas, a decision replete with the most enlight- 

pirit, in which the court .stumps with its indignant condemnation the notion that the State 

i" in any sense that made it independent of, <>r superior to, the Nation. 

said: 

when thcji acted upon the 

to thai 

'. of the 1 Georgia ie not 

^ dilution will be satisfied that the 
; i instituted for such purpi 
: judician , and in all ilui-i powers extending 
l'-ici % oi nun. anj person, natural or 
n ption from the jurisdiction of the national govcrnmi 

Mr. v. tairman, the dogma of state sovereignty, which has reawakened to such vigorous life in 

ich hitter fruits, and entailed such suffering upon our people, that it deserves 

that the word *♦ sovereignty" cannot be RUy applied to 

mment in this country. It is nut found in our Constitution. It is ;t feudal word, bun ol the 

of the Middle Ages, and was unknown even in imperial Rome. A •• - tvereign" is a person, 

injects that owe him allegiance. There is no one paramount sovereign in the 

i a here who holds an) title or authority whatever, except the official 

auth : him by law. Americans are not subjects, but citizens. Our only sovereign is the 

I 'ilk about the ••inherent sovereignty " of a corporation — an artificial person — is to 

talk noi mI we ought to reform our habit of speech on that subject. 

gentlemen mean when they tell us that a state issovereign? What does sovereignty 
. but a political corporation having no superior? Is a state of this Union such a 
test it by a few examples drawn from the Constitution. No state of this I nion 
mi hide a p. ... . •. Without the consent of Congress it cannot raise or support an 
It i aun.it make a treat) with a foreign power, nor enter into any agreement or corn- 
It cannot levy imposts or duties on imports or exports. It cannot coin money, 
nnot authorize a single ship to go into commission anywhere on the 
hip would be seized as a pirate, or confiscated by the laws of the United 
emit bills of credit. It can enact unlaw which makes anything but gold and 
It has i: epttheflaj ion. And there are many other subjects 

: bidden by the Constitution to l< 
1 1 ••a much ii nty is left in a corporation which is thus shorn of all these great 

• all. The Supreme Court of the United States may declare null and void any law 

vhich happens tube in conflict with the Constitution and 

. plaintiffs and defendants before the Supreme 

They ma; ind, until the Eleventh Amendment was 

reigns "ma) all be summoned before their common 

Vnd yet they are end. .wed with supreme inherent sovereignty I 

..:• 1\ abolished >- ... it is not 



THE REVIVED DOCTRINE OF STATE SOVEREIGNTY. 

republican in form. And, finally, to cap the climax of this absurd ; 

one of these •• sovereign " states, every inherent >"\. 

sentation in tin- Senate, may be taken away, without its consent, b) ( 

and three-fourths of tin- states. But, in spite of all I 

pendent, sovereign stat.--.ih.' ci i and tin- i 

" sovereign " must be that state west of the Mississippi which 

public money, and permitted to come into the Union a halt i 

And \.-t we are told that the -tat.-- arc inherently 

Read a long I'm.- of luminous decisions of the Supreme Court. I 
Marshall, that great judge, who found the Constitution paper and ma< 
eton and clothed it with flesh and blood. By his wisdom and genius 
cent instrument for the government of a great nation. Everywl 
gerous heresy of the sovereignty of the states, in the sense in which it has I 

Halt" a centuiy ago this heresj threatened the stability ol 
and his compeers, and the patriotism and high courage of Andn 
destroyed its power ; but it continued to live as the evil genius, the ii 
[86] it was the fatal phantom that lured eleven millions of our peopli 
ment. Hundreds of thousands of those who took up arms against the I 
inducements to that fatal step until they were summoned by the auth 

The dogma of state sovereignty, in alliance with chattel nally n 

court of last resort where the laws are silent, and where kings and nal 
In that awful court of war two questions were tried : Shall slaver) live? 
that it may nullif) the laws and destroy the Union? Th 
battle-fields of the war: and if war ever " l( 

affirmed, then our war legislated finally upon -those subjects, and determined, 
that slavery should never again live in this Republic, and that I 
state to authorize its people either t" destroy the Union or nullii 

I am unwilling t.. believe that an) considerable numb 
doctrine to the same extreme; and yet, in these summer months of 1879, in th< >. 
Nation, we find the majorit) drifting fast andfarinthew 
which the war ought to have settled forever. And what is in.. re Ian 
which I lead at th.' outset are finding their echoes in man;, 
theatre of war. No one can read the proceed 
growing determination to assert that the men who fo 
able conspiracy against the Nation, but that the) did righl to fight 1 
run. the lost causr will be victorious. These indications are filling the people with 
tion : and they are beginning to inquire whether the war has reall) 

I remind gentlemen on the other side that we I 
hoped they were settled beyond recall, and th md friendship 11 

people. 

But the truth requires tne to say that there is one indi-: 
we ,-au stand 1 .-ether, and it is this : The war for the Union wa 
against the Union was wrong, forever wrong. How. vet honesl and 
the secession was none the less rebellion and treason. We d< fi nd tl 
and important rights, and we defend with equal zeal the ri 
authority of both were received from the people tl ■ 

We insist m I only that this is a nation, but that the ; 
scribed sphere, operates" directb upon th.' states and upon all tl 
be construed by our own curts and enforced b) our Executive. V 
this doctrine we will resist t,, the end. 

Applying these reflections to the sub 

tlemen that this is a national II 



GARFIELD'S CAREER. 



that a man elected in New York city i- elected honestly and lawfully : for he joins in 
maki ry-five mill: pie. Every citizen of the Unked States has an interest and a 

a within thi- Republic where national representatives arc chosen. We insist that 
national elections -hall In- enforced, not nullified; shall remain on tin- statute- 
pealed : and that tin- just ami legal supervision of these elections ought never again 
red by the government of the United States. l'>\ our consent it never shall be surren- 

\ ' A >. airman, this hill is about to be launched upon it> Stormy passage. It goes not into 

unknown water-: for it- fellows have been wrecked in the same sea. It- short, disastrous, ami. 1 maj 
add. i| - likel) to be straight to the bottom. 



THE CIVIL SERVICE. 

• 

Nil R in I .n of my friend from Indiana Mr. Nibl.uk . thai the Republican party 

must stand b\ it- own conduct, and I desire to call the attention of the Chairman of the Committee on 
Appi Mr. Dawes to a measure of economy and reform to which he may. with great pro- 

ud in which I have no doubt he will have the hearty co-operation of the Pres- 
eiutivc department-, and the gratitude of all good men. I refer to our civil service. I 
nterthat broad field which m\ distinguished friend from Rhode Island Mr. Jenckes has 

but 1 call attention to the fact that our whole civil service is costing u- far t mull. S< 

tary McCullocl de this remarkable statement: 

thi rYeasur) Department of the United States, I will do all its work bet- 

i » ha I 1 can «a> e. 

le might be said of all our executive departments. And if there is one thing to which my 

from Massachusetts Mr. Dawes can devote his attention with most marked results, 

with the applause of this I louse, and of the w hole country, it is the reorganization of these departments. 

In the annual report of the Secretary of the Interior there is a passage which should be com- 

ry member of this House. Thai officer says that he can do the work of his department 
with two-third- of the force which lie now ha.- under his Control, if you will only give him a reasonable 

and wi-e organization. I quote his words: 

! m' qualification, make m I by tin- duty performed th< 

ful incumbent manence "i employment thai i~ given to officers <•< tin 

nviction amoi i- thai the retention of thcii 

..mil ill. i n upon i ncrgji ..t /. .il in the performance "t duty, 
idi .1 thai thi would have enabled ilii- depart- 

in number than were found 

right in saying that one-half of all that great army of clerks employed in thi' civil 
in tin- mere business of copying ; not in tin- use of judgment or expert know 1- 

i the applii atioii of the law to the adjustment of account- : bul t.. the mere iii. mu. il 

counting. 
Itch work a- thi-. men can be hired all over the country for six or eight hundred 
I in. m know- that hi' can gel a good, efficient Copying clerk at that rate. 

; ization, we are paying that whole cla-- of employ'- at ha-t double what 

i whole business ol ii\il appointments depends upon that vague, uncertain, 

■ i political influi 

i various departments. I -aw a man in one of the depart- 

-it at a door and open it when people Come in and -hut it 

whei nail} to run into an office a few feet distant. Under our laws these messen- 



THE TARIFF. 



gers gel eight hundred dollars a year, and if the) w< >any business man in uuld 

nol gel half the money from him for the same kind ol 

We employ common laborers in our executive department r which we pay them 

twice or more than twice as much as they can get anywhere else in the country where t!, 1 at 

the current rate of wages. In doing sow.- demoralize the whole system of labor. Wi man 

out of a thousand and gh e him triple wages, thus making .ill th< 
who is al fault in this? Nol the President of the United States, not tin - 
the head of an) department of this Administration — not an) or all •<( these, exclush 
fault lies here, fellow-citizens of the House of Representatives; here with us and our Ic 
make the laws; we ii\ the rati' of wages; we render working-men discontented with ord 
picking cut and promoting in an unreasonable and exceptional waj tin- few nun wc hip • hold 

their places at our mere) and at our caprice. The) are liable at any n nut to be pushed asidi 

another favorite. Their service is miserable for its uncertainty. It tends to take awa) their independ- 
ence and manliness, and make them the mere creatures "i those in power. 

\\Y do all this ourselves; we go, man by man. to th«- head- al departments, anil 

say, •• I [ere is a friend of mine ; gi\ e him a place." We press such appointments upon tin 
we crowd the doors ; we fill the corridors ; Senators and Repn 
until the public business is obstructed, the patience of officers is worn 

losing their places by our influence, they at last give wa) and appoint men, ii"t because the) 
the positions, but because we ask it. There, Mr. Chairman, is. in mj own judgment, t ; 
retrenchment and reform. I believe that we can. at almost half the ; 

departments better than the) are now managed, it" v\ e adopt a judicious s) stem ol ch il sei t i 

scores of auditing and accounting officers, heads ofbureaus and divisions, then v »t *» 

quasi judicial functions, through whose hands pass millions in a day. ami upon whose integrity and 
ability the revenues of the Nation largel) depend, wl ; \ ing far less than the raili 

insurance, manufacturing, and other companies pay for services far 1< 

not pay the market value of their services. When we find that the duties of an) ofl ility, 

cultivation, and experience, let a liberal salary be given, in order to procure thi 
and for the mere manual duties of these civil departments let us get men for the market pi 

Now. sir. what do we see? The Republican part) is not moving forward to mak< 
change. The Democratic party is not moving forward to make it. Wi in enjoying th 
so vailed, and our political opponents are waiting and watching and hoping tor the ti 
they can do the same — when we shall be out of power, and they shall I 

ble work ol' ousting and appointing which we are called upon'to do year after year. 

of justice, in the name of economy, let us take hold of this matter, ami sustain I 
Interior in the kind of work which he is doing, and help all the other departn* i 

,ot,e ma) sa) . ■•That is very line talk : show us the practice." I will tell you about tin | 
Patent Office ><\ the Interior Department has during a whole year been cond 
am here advocating. No man. so far as I know, has been appointed to service in that b 
a strict competitive examination. The result is, that we see in the management 
marked efficiency ami economy. Hut what can a department do. what can a bui 
weight of congressional influence pressing for the appointment of men 
In this direction is the true line of statesmanship, the true path iy. I will 

the steps of my distinguished friend whenever he leads towards genuine econon 
great subject in hand, and it can lie settled in a very few Wi 

THE TARIFF. 

I have given this brief historical sketch for the pur; i«ch the 

tariff legislation of this country has sprung. It has received tl 
our early history ; and. though the principle of protection has s ' able 



GARFIELD'S CAREER. 



extreme, thus bringing reproach upon the system, it has nevertheless borne many of the fruits which 
wire anticipated by those who planted the germ. 

1 i ntlemen who opp >se this view of public policy tell us that they favor a tariff for revenue alone. 
I therefore invite their attention to the revenue phase of the question. The estimated expenditures for 
the next fiscal year are two hundred and eighty and one-half million dollars, including interest on the 
public debt and the appropriations required by law for the sinking fund. The Secretary of the Treasury 
estimates the revenues which our present laws will furnisl 000,000: from customs, one hundred 

and thirty-three millions: from internal revenue, one hundred and twenty millions; and from miscella- 
neous sources, sixteen millions. I [e tells us that it will be necessary to cut down the expenditures eleven 
millions below the estimates in order to prevent a deficit of that amount. The revenues of the last fiscal 
year Tailed by three and a quarter millions to meet the expenditures required by law. 

In the face <>f these facts ean we safely diminish our revenues? [f we mean to preserve the pub- 
lic faith and meet all the necessities of the government, we cannot reduce the present revenues a single 
dollar. Yet the majority of this House not onlj propose to reduce the internal t.i\ on spirits and tobacco, 
but they propose in this bill to reduce the revenues on customs by at least six millions. To avoid the 
disgrace of a deficit, they propose to suspend the operations of the sinking fund, ami thereby shake the 

foundation of the public credit. Hut they tell US that some of the reductions made in this bill will 
increase rather than diminish the revenue. Perhaps on a few articles this will be true: but as a whole 
it i^ undeniable that this bill will effect a c msiderable reduction in the revenues from customs. 

'1 ntlemen on the other side have been in the habit of denouncing our present tariff laws as 
destructive to. rather than productive of, revenue. Let me invite their attention to a few plain facts. 

During the fifteen years that preceded our late war — a period of so-called revenue tariffs — we 
raised from customs an average annual revenue of forty-seven and a half million dollars, never in any 
v ear receiving more than sixty-four millions. That system brought us a heavy deficit in [860, so that 
:lled to b irrovv m mej to m :e1 the ordinarj expenses of the government. 

I> . they tell us that our present law fails to produce an adequate revenue? Thev denounce it as 
not a revenue tariff. Let them wrestle with the following tact: During the eleven years that have 
passed since the close of th<- war. we have averaged one hundred and seventv and one-half million dol- 
lars of revenue per annum from customs alone. Can they say that this is not a revenue tariff which 
produces m ire than three times as much revenue per annum as that law did which the} delight to call 
"the revenue tariff*'? In one \ear. [872, the revenues from customs amounted to two hundred and 
twelve millions. Can thev say that the present law does not produce revenue? It produces from tex- 
tile fabrics alone more revenue than we ever raised from all sources under any tariff before the war. 
From this it follows that the assault upon the present law fails it' made on the score of revenue alone. 

I freely admit that revenue is the primary object of taxation. That object is attained by existing 
law. Hut it is an incidental and vital'} important object of the law to keep in healthy growth those 
industries which are necessarj to the well-being of the whole country. If gentlemen can show me that 
this is, as thev allege, class legislation, which benefits the few at the expense of the many. I will aban- 
don it, and join them in opposing it. This is the legislature of the Nation; and it should make laws 
which will bless the whole Nation. I do not affirm that all the provisions of the existing tariff law are 

and just. In many respects thev are badly adjusted, and need amendment. Hut I insist tli.it in 
their main features they are national, not partial; that they promote the general welfare, and not the 
die few at the expense of the many. 

Let us glance at the leading industries, which, under the provisions of the existing law. are 
led to maintain themselves in the sharp struggle of competition with other countries. 1 will name 

them in live groups. In the fust I place the textile fabrics, manufactures of cotton, wool, flax, hemp, 
jute, and silk. From these we received during the last fiscal year liliv million dollars, which is inn. 
than one-third of all our i ustoins revenue. 

It is said that a tax should not be levied upon the clothing of the people. This would be a valid 

if not for the fact that obje< ts of the highest national importance are secured by its impo- 

That forty-live millions of people should be able to clothe themselves without helpless depend- 

upoii other nations is a matter of transcendent importance to every citizen. What American can 



THE TARIFF. 



be indifferent to the fact that in the year [875 the State of Massachusetts alone product 
yards of textile fabrics, and in doing so consumed %\ worth of the products of the fields and 

Rocks, and gave employment to artisans? There is .1 touch of pathos in the apologetic reply of 

Governor Spottswood, an earlj colonial governor of Virginia, when he wrote t.. his British supi 1 

'I'll, people of Virginia, n it) than inclination, attempt to clotlu tl 

It i^ certain!,} necessary to divert their application to on mmoditj 

tory oj the United Slates, vol. i\.. page 104. 

Thanks to our independence, such apologies are no longer needed. S .11 the 

textiles arc exorbitant . and ought to be redu< ed ; but the general principle \\ hit li p« -1 \. ades the group is 
wise and beneficent, not only as a means ol raising revenue, but as a measure "i national economy. 

In the second group I have placed the metals, including glass and chemicals. Though the I 
upon this group lias been severely denounced in this debate, the rate does nol 
six per cent, ad valorem, and the group produced a hunt $1 |., 000, 000 of revenue last year. B 
ing as a source of public revenue, what intelligent man fails to see that the metals are th< ■ : all 

the machinery, tools, and implements of every industry? More than any other in I 
tory. this is the age when inventive genius is bending all its energies t" devii the 

effectiveness of human labor. The mechanical wonders displayed at our Centenni 
sufficient illustration. 

The people that cannot make their own implements of industry must be content to take 
humble and subordinate place in the family of nations. The people that cannot, at any lime, b\ I 
own previous training, arm and equip themselves for war, must be content to exist In thi 
others. 

I do not say that no rates in this group are too high. Some of them tan safeh be reduced. But 
I do say these industries could not have aii. lined their present success without the national 
abandon them now will prevent their continued prosperity. 

In the third group I place wines, spirits, and tobacco in its various forms which 1 imefrom abi 
On these, rates of dut} range from 85 to 95 per cent, nd valorem; and from them w 
$10,000,000 of revenue. The wisdom of this tax will hardly be disputed by any one. 

In the fourth group I have placed imported provisi ins which com : in c tmpetition will 
ducts of our own fields and herds, including bread-stuff's, salt, rice, sugar, molasses, and -; 
these provisions imported into this country we collected last year a reven . - . 

of which was collected on sugar. Of the duty on the principal article of this group I shall speak 
further on in the discussion. 

On the fifth group, comprising leather and manufactures of leather, we received al 
of re\ enue. 

On the imports included in the live groups 1 have mentioned, which coinprist manu- 

facturing industries of the country, we collect $1 00 — more than ./> per cent, of all ■• 

revenue. I ask if it be not an object of the highest national importance to keep alive and in \ 
ous health and growth the industries included in these groups? What sort of people should we lie it 
we did not keep them alive ? Suppose we were to follow the advice of the distinguished gentleman 
from Virginia [Mr. Tucker when he said: 

Win should we make pig-iron, when with Berkshire pigs raised upon dim r 
than we can gel M trying to make them ourselves! W 
11. mi the Pennsylvania manufacturers. Why, then, should I not he pen 

What a market for our raw material, for our products, if we would onh take tin- hand whii 
free trade between us ! 

For a single season, perhaps, his plan might be profitable to the consun n ; but ii his 

policy were adopted as a permanent one. it would reduce us to a merely agricultun 

business would be to produce the simplest raw materials by the hast skill and culture, and let tin- men 
of brains of other countries do our thinking for us. and provide for us all products requiring 
ning hand of the artisan, while we would be compelled to do the drudgi ' >em. 

The gentleman from Virginia Mr. Tuckt 'hat the thi 



GARFIELD'S CAREER. 



advocates can only be realized in a state of universal peace and brotherhood among the nations; ami. in 
developing his plan, he says : 

• hairman, link- all mankind in one common brotherhood of mutual dependence and interests, and thus 
- thai unity of our race which makes the resources of all tin- property of each ami ever) member. We cannot if we would, 
hould nut if we could, remain isolated and alone. Men under the benign influence of Christianity yearn tor intercourse, tor 
the inl • thought and tin- products of thought, as a means of a common progress toward a nobler civilization. 

Mr. Chairman, 1 cannot believe this i- according to tin- Divine plan. Christianity hid- us seek, in communion with our 
brethren of every raee and clime, the blessings the) can afford US, and to he-tow in return upon them those with which our new 
:it i- destined to till the world. 

This. I admit, is a grand conception, a beautiful vision of tin- time when all the nations will 
dwell in peace; when all will be, as it were, one nation, each furnishing to the others what they cannot 
profitably produce, ami all working harmoniously together in the millennium of peace, [fall the king- 
doms <>i tin- world should become the kingdom of the Prince of Peace, then I admit that universal free 
trade ought to prevail. Hut that blessed era is \ et tun remote to he made the basis of the practical legis- 
lation nt to-day. We are not yet members of "the parliament of man. the federation of the world." 
For the present, the world is divided into separate nationalities: and that other Divine command still 
applies to our situation: "lie that provideth not lor his own household has denied the faith, ami is 
worse than an infidel :" ami, until that better era arrives, patriotism must supply the place of universal 
brotherhood. 

'.he present Gortchakoff can do more good to the world by taking rare of Russia. The great 

Bismarck cm\ accomplish more for his era by being, as he is, German to the core, and promoting the 
welfare ol the German empire. Let Beaconsfield take care of England, ami MacMahon of France, and 

let Americans devote themselves to the welfare of America. When each does his best tor his own 
nation to promote prosperity, justice, and peace, all will have done more for the world than if all had 
attempted to he cosmopolitans rather than patriots. 

But 1 wish to >ay, Mr. Chairman, that I have no sympathy with those who approach this ques- 
tion only from tin' standpoint of their own local, sellish interest. When a man comes t" me and savs. 
•■ Tut a prohibitory duty on the foreign article which competes with my product, that I may get rich n 
rapidly," he does not excite my s_\ mpathy ; he repels me : and when another says, "Give no protection 
to the manufacturing industries, for 1 am not a manufacturer and do not can' to have them sustained," I 
say that he. to.,, i s equally mercenary and unpatriotic, [fwe were i" legislate in that spirit! mightturn 
to the gentleman from Chicago ami say. •• Do not ask me to vote for an appropriation to build a court- 
house or a post-office in your cit) ; 1 ae\ er expe< t to get any letters from that office, and the people of my 
district never expect t>> he in your courts." If we were to act in this spirit of narrow isolation we should 
he unlit for the national positions we occupy. 

I i much ol our tariff discussion has been warped by narrow and sectional considerations. But 
when we base our action upon tin- conceded national importance of the great industries I have referred 
:e the fact that artisans and their products are essential to the well-being of our 
country, it follows that there is no dweller in the humblest cottage on our remotest frontier who has not 
p personal interest in tin- legislation that shall promote these great national industries. Those arts 
that enable our Nation to rise in the scale of civilization bring their blessings to all. and patriotic citizens 
will cheerfully bear a fair share of the burden necessarj to make their country great and self-sustaining. 
I will del. -nd a tariff that is national in its aims, that protects and sustains those interests without 
which the Nation cannot become great and self-sustaining. 

So important, in my view . is the ability ..t the Nation i anufat ture all these articles necessary 

to arm. equip, and clothe our people, that if it could not lie se< ured in any other way I would vote to 
pay money out ol the Federal treasury to maintain government inm and steel, woolen ami cotton mills, 

;it wh Were we to needed these great interests and depend upon other nations, in what a 

condition ol helplessness would wc find ourselves when we should he again involved in war with the 
very nations on whom we were depending to furnish us these supplies:- The system adopted by our 
fathers >- wiser; for it so encourages the great national industries as i,. make it possible at all times for 
our people to equip themselves for war. ami at tin' sain.' time increase their intelligence and skill so as 
tke them better titled for all the duties of citizenship, both in war and in peace. We provide for 
the common defense by a system which promotes the general welfare. 



THE TARIFF. 



I have tried thus summaril) to state the grounds on which a tariff which produces the n< 
revenue and at the same time promotes American manufactures can be sustained by large-minded men 
for national reasons. How high the rates of such a tariff ought to be, is a question on which then- may 
fairly be differences of opinii m. 

Fortunately . or unfortunately, on this question I have long occupied a position between two ex- 
tremes of opinion. I have long believed, and I still believe, thai the worst evil which has afflicted the 
interests of American artisans and manufacturers lias been the tendency to extremes in our tarifl legis- 
lation. Our history for the past fiftj years has been a repetition of the same mistake. ( » 
into power, and. believing that a protective tariff is a good thing, establishes a fair ran- of duty. V i 
content with that, they saj : " This works well ; let us have more of it." And^the) 
higher, and perhaps go beyond the limits of national interi 

Every additional step in that direction increases the opposition and threatens the stabil 
whole system. When the polic) of increase is pushed beyond a certain point, the popular n 
the opposite party gets into [lower and cuts down the high rati - N il content with reducing the i 
that are unreasonable, the) attack and destroy the whole protective system. Then follows a deficit in 
the treasury, the destruction of manufacturing interests, until the reaction ts in. the fr< 

are overthrown, and a protective system is again established. In not less than four distinct periods dur- 
ing the last fifty years has this sort of revolution taken place in our industrial system. 
national industries have thus been tossed up and down between two extremes ,,f opinion. 

During my term of service in this House I have resisted the effort to increase tie- 
whenever I thought an increase would be dangerous to the stability of our manufacturing interest! 
In doing so I have sometimes been thought unfriendly to the policy of protecting American indu 

When the necessity -if the revenues and the safet) of Our manufactures warranted. I h 

reduction of rates: and these reductions have aided to preserve the stability of the system. In one 3 
soon after the close of the war, we raised $212,000,000 of revenue from CU 

In 1870 we reduced the customs duties by the sum of tw ent\ -nine and one-half milli 

In 1872 they were again reduced by the sum of forty-iour and one-half millions. Those reductic 

in the main" wise and judicious: and although I did not vol.- for them all. yet they have put the- 1. 
minded men of this country in a position where the) .an justly resist any considerable rei 

the present rates. 

My view of the danger of extreme positions,,!, the question of tariff rates may be illustrated In .1 

re-mark made by Horace Greelej in the last conversation I ever had with thai med t 

Saiil he : 

My criticism of you i- thai you an- not sufficiently high protective in ^ 

I replied : 
What would you advise? 

1 le said : 
If T had my way— if I were kin- of thi 

,atedut .erythingel 1 America. The result would be that our , 

,,U their own wants; manufactures would spring up; competition would finalh red 
ourselves. 

I replied that the fatal objection to his theory Was that no man is king of this country, wit: 
to make his police permanent. ' Buf as all our policies depend upon popular support, 
ure proposed would beget an opposite extreme, and our industries would suffer from viol. 
F 0r this r,-aso„ I believe thai we ought to seek that point of stable equilibria 
prohibitory tariff on the one hand, and a tariff that gives no protection on the otl 
of stable equilibrium? In my judgment it is this: a rate so high that foreign produ. 
markets and break down our home manufactures, but not so high as to keep them a 

enabling our manufacturers to combine and raise the prices, nor so high as to stimulate an unnatural 
unhealthy growth of manufactures. 

In other words. I would have the dut) so adjusted that every great American ii n fairly 

live and make fair profits J and yet so low that if our manufacturers attempted to put uppri.es unre 



GARFIELD'S CAREER. 

ably, abroad would come in and bring down prices to a fair rati-. Such a tariff 1 

ted by the great majority of Americans. We arc not far from having such a tariff 
ts we have departed from that standard. Wherever it does, we 
nd it, and : ig we shall secure stability and prosperity. 

asideration of the pending bill. It was my hope, at the beginning ol the 

( T Ways and Means would enter upon a revision of the tariff in the 

tary of the Treasury ;:i Ins annual report that a consider- 

small amount of revenue, ami were not essential to the 

ur manufactures, could be placed up in the free-list, thus simplifying the law ami making 

nsistent in 1 was read) to assist in such a work of revision ; but the committee 

hail not gone far before it was evident that they intended to attack the whole system, ami. as far a- pos- 
sible, destroy it. The results of their long and arduous lab irs are emb tdied in the pending bill. 

- me of the rates can be slightly reduced without serious harm ; bat many of the reductions pro- 
ill will lie fatal. It i- related that when a surgeon wa^ probing an emperor's wound to 
find the ball, he 

per? 
1 1 - Majesty replied : 

you will find tl 
It i> a little deeper probing bv this bill that will touch the vital interests of this country and destroy 
them. 

: its provisions are wise, and ought to be adopted. One. particularly, which establish 
new test of the value of sugar, should, if possible, become a law before this session ends. But, in my 
ment, the bill as a whole is a most unwise and dangerous measure ; dangerous to the great national 
industries of this country, so dangerous that, if we should pass it it would greatly increase the prevailing 
nd would make the condition of our artisans deplorable to the last degree. 

Ejainst this bill is. that it seeks to cripple the protective feature- ol the 

law. It increases rates where an increase is not necessary, ami it cut- them down where cutting will 

kill. One of the wisest provisions of our present law is the establishment of a definite free-list. From 

hen it has h.-en found that any article could safely be liberated from duty, it has been put 

upon the i I \ large number of raw materials have thus been made free of duty. Tins has light- 

the burdens of taxation, and at the same time aided the industries of the country. 

To show tin- progress that has been made in this direction, it should be remembered that in [867 
due of all articles imported free of duty was but $39,000,000, while in 1N77 the free imports 
amounted to $181 .(x>.. 

1 have alread) said, the Secretary of the Treasur) recommends a still further increase ol the 
Hut this bill abolishes the free-list altogether, and imposes duties upon a large share ol articles 
And this is done in order to make still greater reduction upon articles that must be pro!. 
if their manufacture i- maintained in this country. 

the great industries at which this bill strikes. In the group ol textile 

n, reductions are made upon the manufactures of cotton which will stop 

11 mills of the country and hopelessly prostrate the business. Still greater vio- 

1. The attempt has been made to show that the business 

ined in consequence of our present law. and the fact has been pointed out that 

lily falling off in the Eastern States. The truth is that sheep-culture 

in t; in so health) a condition as it is to-day. [n i860 our total wool product 

pounds, [n 1877 we produced two hundred and eight millions of pounds. 

It is true that there is not now ■ > number of sheep in the East) 1 n States as lli. re w 1 

I but the centre ..1 that industiy has been shifted, of the thirty-five and a half millions 

fourteen and a half million- are in Texas and the stales and territo- 

ins. California alone ha- six and a half millions ofsheep. Not lb.- least 

cility it offers for cheap animal food. V great 1 rench statesman 

! od than clothing :" and the growth of il ■ o om- 



THE TARIFF. 



plishes both objects. Ninety-five per cent, of all the woolen I 
now made of native wool. 

The tariff on wool and woolens was adopted 
tion "i both the producing and the manufacturing interests. I 
the farmers and manufacturers, and has been advantageous I 
could In- made w ithout injur) . 

Both of these interests consented to a reduction and submit ( 

Ways and Means. B d of adopting it. the comn 

a dead-level ad valorem duty upon .ill « - chairman tells 

do awa) with the ad valorem system, because il •_■ 
Yet on the interest that yields twent) millions of revenue he p 
and pin the interest upon one dead-level of </</ valot « duty vvitb 

I would not introduce sectional topics in this discussion, bul I 
this bill. In the greal group of provisions, on which nearh 
treasury, I find that $.$7,000. (xx> <<( that amount come from imported suj 
levying of so heavy a tax upon a necessar) article ol ; id, were it not that .< 
is thereby protected; and that interest is mainly confined to ti ■• - 
government has given its aid to the State, for not a pen;.. 
tariff law did not protect it. 

As the lavs now stands, the average ad valorem duty on 
But what has this bill done? The complaint is made b\ its 
The rates on all dutiable articles average about forty-tw 
two .md a half per cent., greatl} above the average. This bill puts up 
about seventy per cent. This one interest, which is already protected by a duty much h . 
average, is here granted a still higher rate, while other interests, now far bi 
put still lower. Metals that now average but thirty-six per cent. 

average, but little more than half of the rate on sugar — are cut down still more, while I 
the sugar interest is made still higher. 

If the planters of Louisiana were to <j,ct the benefit, there woul 1 be s< 
hut what is the fact? One thousand four hundred and fifteen million pound 
this country last year, but not one pound of refined sugar; every pound v 
going into the hands of about twenty-five gentlemen, m >stly in the • 
pound of this enormous quantity of imported sugar. This bill : 
sugar far more than on the lower grades, and makes the importation of any finish* 
It strengthens and makes absolute the monopoly already given to the refining 
that this is a revenue-reform tariff. 

Before closing 1 wish to notice one thing, which. I believe. 
debate. A few years ago we had a considerable premium on gold, and as our tarifl • 
coin there was thus created an increase in the tariff rates. Il 
va'ue of coin was one hundred and fourteen cents: in 1876, one hundred and 1 
hundred and four cents. Now, thanks to the resumption law and ll 
the premium on gold is almost down to zero. But this fall in the premiui 1 
reduction of the tariff rates, because the duties were paid in gold and I 

Now, when gentlemen saj that the 1 
that they have been falling year In year, as th. 
gentlemen criticise the rates as fixed in the law of 
premium on gold has wrought a virtual reduction of fouiti 

Mr. Chairman, the Committee of Ways and Means 
The chairman has labored in season and 
energy and earnestness with which he has addressed himsell 
found expression in his bill must be criticised without regard I 
cal in its character, so dangerous to our busini 



GARFIELD'S CAREER. 



when the country is just recovering itself from a long period of depression and getting again upon solid 

mingup out of the wild sea of panic and distress which lias tossed us so long. 

remembered that twenty-two per cent, of all the laboring people of this country are arti- 

mianufactu eir culture has been fostered by our tariff laws. It is their pursuits, 

kill which they have developed, that produced the glory of our Centennial Exhibition. To 

them the country owes the splendor of the position it holds before the world more than to any other 

f our citizens. It' this bill becomes a law, it strikes down their occupation, and throws 

into the keenest distress the brightest and best elements of our population. 

1 implore this House not to permit us to be thrown into greater contusion, either by letting this bill 
me a law, or by letting it hang over the country as a menace. And in all kindness to the chairman 
itlemen who think with him, I hope we will sit here to-night until the sec- 
reading of the bill is commenced. When the first paragraph has been read 1 will propose to strike 
out the enacting clau 

If the committee will do that, we can kill the bill to-day. It is not simply a stalking-horse, upon 
which gentlemen can leap to show their horsemanship in debate: it is not an innocent lay-figure, upon 
which gentlemen may spread the gaudy wares of their rhetoric without harm : but it U a -reat. danger- 
Ster, a very Polyphemus which stalks through the land: 

•rum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum." 
If it- eve be not out. let us take it out. and end the agony. 



THE CURRENCY. 

■ „ Sptteh in tie Houn o) Refrt ■■ ma:,-., .. May //. 

In ordi r I i reach a satisfactory understanding of the currency question, it is necessary to consider 
trhat fully the nature and functions of money, or any substitute for it. 
Xh« ; money which formed the basis of the " mercantile system" of the seventeenth and 

eighteenth centuries has been rejected by all leading financiers and political economists for the last sev- 

K the,,,y asserted that money is wealth : that the great object of every nation should 
\i amount of gold and silver: that this was a direct increase of national wealth. 
It is now held as an indisputable truth that money is an instrument of trade, and performs but two 
functions. It is a measure of value and a medium of exchange. 

In cases ot" Bimple barter, where no money is used, we estimate the relative values of the com- 

mged in dollars and cents, it being our only universal measure of value. 

ium of exchange, monej is to all business transactions what ships are to the transporta- 

[| a hundred vessels of a given tonnage are just sufficient to carry all the com- 

. of the number of vessels will correspondingly decrease the 

instrument of commerce ; an} decrease below one hundred will correspondingly 

[| -he number be doubled, each will carry but half its usual freight : will be 

•hat tiade. There is so much work to be done, and no more. A 

do it all. A thousand can do no more than all. 

of money as ., medium of exchange, though more complicated in their application. 

ie in principle as the functions of tin- vessels in the case I have supposed. 

: ..ii the exchanges effected in this country by means of 

■..in how many dollars' worth ofsuch exchanges . an he effected in a 

houldknow how much mone) the country needed for the business 

below that amount will correspondingly increase the value of 

Any increase above that amount will correspondingly de< i 

liar. If that -mount be doubled, each dollar of the Whole mass will perform luit 
• re; W 11 be worth but half its former value as a medium ot 



THE CI A7,7\ I ) . 



R irring to our illustration : if, instead of sailing \ ( 
smaller tonnage would be required ; so, il ; ' «v< re found thai | 
cents in gold, were sufficient for the business of the country, it i 
gold substituted for the paper would perl >rm precise!) the 

It should be remembered, also, that an\ improvement in the 
which tin' actu il use of m »ne) is in part dispensed with, red 

i K'h has been accomplished in this direction by recenl imp • in bankii 

the operations of the clearing-houses in our gn 

The records of the New York Clearing-H 
establishment, to Oct. ti,i8 , hanges amounted to nearlj { 

than $ if money were used, an avi bout four per cent. ; I 

made to the amount o by the paymenl 

li is als ■ a settled principle that all deposits in hanks, drawn uj 
sen <■ the purpi ise of money. 

T amount of currency needed in the country depends, ;i- w< 
business transacted by means of m mey. The amount of busine 
which are irregular and uncertain in their operation. An Indian war. deficient oi 
overflow of the cotton-lands of the South, a bread famine or war in Europe, and 
entirely beyond the reach of legislation, may make money deficient this \i.\r and abundant 
needed amount varies, also, from month to month in the same year. \l in the 

autumn, when the vast products of agriculture are being m ived to m irket, than v 
laborers are in winter quarters, awaiting the seed-time. 

When the mone) of the country is gold and silver, it adapts itself to the :' 
without the aid of legislation. If, at am time, we have more than i- n< i di d, I 
other countries through the channels of international commerce. If less, the defi» ii 
the same channels. Thus the monetary equilibrium is maintained. 
world that the golden streams pouring from California and Australia in tin 
absorbed in the great mass and equalized throughout the world, as th< 
upon the surface of all the seas. 

N so, however, with an inconvertible paper current I 

customs and the interest mi our public debt, we are etit ofl' from the m 
currency resembles rather the waters of an artificial lake, which lie in stagnation 
the caprice of the gate-keeper. 

Gold and silver abhor depreciated paper money, and will not k. 
rency he m >re abundant than business demand-, not a d illar of il 
lar of gold will come in to suppl) the lack. There is no legislature 
a currency to the wants of the country. 

Let us examine more minutely the effect of such a currency upoi 
transactions of the country at the present time require f 

are just -\;=;o.ooo.ooo of legal-tender notes, and no other money in the country, 
form the full functions of a gold dollar, so far as tin- work 
remaining the same, li I 1,000 more of the same kind of note- he pn 

whole volume, as thus increased, can do no more than all the busil 
half the work that a dollar did before the increase; hut a- the nominal doll 
is shown in prices being doubled. It requit these doll i 

dollar made before the increase. It would requin 
itself to the new conditions, ami great derangement of value- would i i 
he reached in all transactions which are controlled by the I PPty- 

No such change of values i .\n occur without i 
this case? We have -ecu that doubling the currency finall 
of each dollar one half: hence, ever} man who held a 
continued to hold it till the full effect of the increase was prodm 
H 



[RFIELD'S CAREER. 



ther words, he paid a tax to the amount of half of all the currency in his possession. 

. by depreciating the value <>f all the currency, cost the holders of the old 

and if the now n »tes were received at their nominal value at the date of issue, their 

holu - ;; .000,000 in No more unequal <>r unjust mode of taxation could possibly 

be devised. It would be tolerated only by being so involved in the transactions of business as to be 

: but it would be no less real because hidden. 

liu- m.i\ say : •• This depreciation would fall up m capitalists ami rich men, wh 1 arc 

able to bear it." 

If thifi were true, it would be no less unjust. But, unfortunately, the capitalists would suffer less 

than any other class. The new issue would be paid in the first place in large amounts to the creditors 

of the government ; it would pass from their hands before the depreciation had taken full effect, and, 

\n step b) step through the ranks of middlemen, the dead weight would fall at last upon the 

laN : 5, in the increased price of all the net if life. It is well known that in a general 

rise of pri ng the last to rise. This principle was illustrated in the report of the 

v er of the Revenue for the \ ear [866. It is there shown that from the beginning of 

the war to the end of [866, the average price of all commodities had risen ninety per cent. Wages, 

1. ail risen but sixty per cent. A day's labor would purchase but two-thirds as many of the 

• it would before. The wrong is therefore inflicted on the laborer long before his 
:i be adjusted to his increased expenses. It was in view of this truth that Daniel Webster said, 

in one of his ablest speeches : 

if mankind, none has been more effectual than that which deludes 
rtilize the rich man's field 1m the sweat "i the poor man's 
lalv (iii the happint i the mass of the community . corn- 
depreciated |' 

The fraud committed ami the burdens imposed upon the people, in the case we have supposed, 

would be lesN intolerable if all business transactions could be really adjusted to the new conditions: but 

•his is impossible. All debts would he canceled, all contracts fulfilled by payment in these notes — 

not at their real value, but lor their face. All salaries fixed h\ law, the pay ofeverj soldier in the army. 

ailor in the navy, and all pensions and bounties, would be reduced to half their former value. 
In tii only injurious. Let it never be forgotten that every depreciation of our cur- 

:lts in robbing the one hundred and eighty thousand pensioners, maimed heroes, crushed and 
l\ a\ w idows, and homeless orphans, vv ho sit helpless at our feel. And w ho would be benefited bj 
this poln v ? A pretense of apologj might be offered for it. if the government could save what tin' peo- 
ple lose. Hut the system lacks the support of even that selfish and immoral consideration. The depre- 

is.-d by the over-issue in the vase we have supposed Compel-; the government to p.tv jusl thai 
per i on all the contracts it makes, on all the loans it negotiates, on all the supplies it pur- 

• :i all, it must at last redeem all its legal-tender noies in gold coin, dollar for dollar. 
; repudiation have not yet been bold enough to deny this. 

I have thus far considered the influence of a redundant paper currency on the country when its 

and industry are in a healthy and normal state. I now call attention to its effecl in producing ai^ 

unhi insion of business, in stimulating speculation and extravagance, and in laying the sure 

immercial revulsion and wide-spread ruin. This principle is too well understood to require 

l of all modern nations is full of examples. One of the ablest A.meri- 

mil bankin 'I . • ■ uge, thus sums up the result of his researches : 

i\ en in 

In- considered the effecl of depreciated currency on our trade with other 
home higher than they are abroad, imports are largely increased beyond 

.broad: or, what is far worse for us. our bonds, which have also Buffered 

on the dollar. During the whole period 

"i high pi the v tr, gold and bonds have been steadily going abroad, notwithstanding 

duties, wl il\ fifty per cent, ad valorem. More than five hundred million 



COL VTING THE ELEi TOR !/. / OTE. 

dollars of our bonds are now held in Europe, iv.uK to be thrown bacl 
sufficient disturbance shall occur. No tarifl ran - shorl ol acl .. 
gold while our currency is thus depreciated. During 
decreased, and our ship-building interests wen- nearh ruined. 

Our tonnage engaged in foreign trade, which amounted in ; 
million tons, had fallen in 1865-66 to !<•>- than one and .1 half million 
per cent. ; and prices of labor and material are still I 
foreign builders. 

From the facts alread) exhibited in n our industrial n 

analysis of the nature and functions of currency . it is manil 

i. Thai the remarkable prosperity of all iiulusiri.il enterprise durinj 
the abundant e of 1 urrency, but by the unparalleled demand foi • 

j. That the great depression of business, the stagnation of trade, the " 
prevailed during the past year, and which still prevail, have not b 
of currency, but mainly In the great falling off of the demand for .ill th« 
with the increased supplj since the return from war I 



COUNTING THE ELECTORAL VOTE. 

In : 

W11 vr. then, are the grounds on which we should consider a bill like this? It .... 
ing in me, or in any member of this Congress, to opposi this bill on n 
It should be opposed, it' at all, for reasons so broad, -ill tha 

its favor, and all the advantages which I have here admitted 1 I do not 

wish to diminish the stature of m\ antagonist; I do 1 undervalui 

measure before I question its propriety. It is not enough that this bill will tid 
however great. Let us for a moment forgel Hayes and Tilden, Republicans and I' 
forget our own epoch and our own generation; and, enti 

which we arc about to do will affect the great future of our Republic, and in whal 
this bill, we shall transmit our institutions to those who shall 
we shall achieve by it may be very great; yet if the evils that will fl 
greater, it would be base in ns to flinch from trouble '• 

In my view. then, the foremost question is this: What will be tl 
institutions? 1 cannot make that inquiry intelligibly without a bi 
stitution, and to some of the formidable questions which p 
hundred years ago, when they set up this goodly ft nt. 

Among the foremost difficulties, both in point of time and 1 
utive head of the Nation. Our lathers encountered that difficult 
and elected the officers of the Constitutional Convention. T 
of Virginia, on the twenty-ninth day of May. r< 
tion to its examination. The men who made the Constitution 
political philosophy of their day. They had learned from 
and other great teachers of the human race, that liheri 
don of the three great powei nment. \ 

When the lcgislati wcrs are unil 

liberty, because apprehensions may arise lesl th< 
nical manner. 

1 
cise thoc three powers, thai 






GARFIELD'S CAREER. 



i fundamental truth in the American mind, as it had long been cherished and practiced 
in the British em] 

in all monarchies, the creation of a chief executive was easily regulated by adopting 
g the law <>f primogeniture. 

- had drawn the deeper lesson of liberty tV.nn the inspirations of this fre • New 
. that their Chief Executive should be born, not of a dynasty, but of the will of a free people regu- 

iw. 
In t: if their deliberations upon this subject, there w< ven different plans. 

which grouped under two principal heads or classes. One group comprised all the plans for 

v. Executive b) m< me one of tin- pre-existing political organizations ol the 

ind foremost was the proposition to authorize one or both houses of the National Legis- 
lature to elect thi c i ;ecutive. Another was to confer that power upon the governors ol the states. 

Another, that he should be chosen directly by the people them- 
laws of the states. The second group comprised all the various plans for creating a 
new and separate instrumentality for making the choice. 

r>t the proposition that the Executive should be elected by the National Legislature was 

red by the convention with almost unanimous approval; and for the reason that up to that time 

ill that was done in the way of national government. It had created the Nation, 

and led its fortunes through a thousand perils, had declared and achieved independence, and had pre- 

.1 the liberty of the people in the midst of a great war. C ingress had tailed to secure a 

firm and stable government after the war. yet its g] >ry was nol Vs C ingress had created 

nion, it was most natural that our fathers should sa) v should also create the Chiel Execu- 

'. tion ; ami within two weeks after the convention assembled, the} voted for that plan 

with absolute unanimity. 

Hut with equal unanimity the) agreed that this plan would he fatal to the stability of the govern- 
ment about to establish, if they did not couple with it some provision that should make the 
independent of the power that created him. To effect this, tiny provided that the 
lent should he ineligible for re-election. They -aid it would never do to create a chief executive 
by t!, the National Legislature, and then allow him to be rc-clrcied by that same voice ; for 
;ld thus become their creature. 

the first day of their session in May to within five days of its close in September. 
they grappled with the mighty question. I have many time-, and recently very carefully, gone through 
all the records that are left to us of that great transaction. 1 fmd that more than one-seventh of all the 

'1 ue devoted to this Samson of questions. 1|.,\\ the Executive should be 

m and made independent of the organization that made the choice. This topic alone occupied 
!i of all the time of the convention. 

ml earnest debate, after numerous votes and reconsiderations, they wen' obliged 
utterly to abandon the plan of creating the Chief Executive by means of the National Legislature. I 
uill t • inent by a do/. -n or more pungent quotations from the mastei 

mbly, in which the) declared that it would be ruinous t,, the liberty 

,.l to the permanence of the Republic if they did not absolutely exclude the National 

; n the ele< tion of the President 

eloquence to the sad but instructive fate of those brilliant Italian 
. .• there was no adequate separation of powers, and because their 

! up the executive power, and, and despotic conclaves, 

. when the last vote on this subj I en by our lath- 

luding the National Legislature from any share whatever m the 

•l. The) rejected all the plans of the first group, and created 
i adopted the system of electors. When that plan was under discussion 

i Mon against the interfer- 



I 1 1 A ', I III: l.l.l.i TORAL l "// . 






In the first place, they --aid the states shall create th< : ( 

gress to have nothing whatever to do with the creation of the colli Lime 

when tin- states should appoint them. And. in order to exclude <- n, in 

the last days of the convention they provided that no member of eilhei 

appointed an elector; so that not even by the personal influence of am : the 

Congress interfere with tin- election of a President. 

The creation of a President under our Constitution 
creation of the electoral colleges; second, thi tnd, third, I 

of their votes. This is the simple plan of the Constitution. 

The creation of the colleges is left absoluti . within tl id the 

honor to mention to the House a few days ago. First, il musl that appoii I 

the state is limited as to the number of electors the} m.i\ appoint; third, 
"i Congress, nor 1 fficers of the United Si rth, the time for appointin) 

Congress; and. fifth, the time when their appointment is announced, wh 
giving their votes, ma\ also be fixed bj Congn 

I e five simple limitations, and these alone, were laid 1 
and thine- possible to be done in creating the electoral colleges was absolutely and u 
power ol the states themselves. Within these limitations, ( has no mo 11 in 

this work than England or France. 'That is the first 

The see< nd is still plainer and simpler, namely, the work of tin 
an independent and separate power, or set of powers, for the sole put 

were created by the states. Congress has just one thing to do with them, and i.iil\ one: it n 
day when they shall meet. By the act of 1792 v.' mgn ss fixed the day as it -till stands 1 
there the authority of the Congress over the colleges ended. 

There was a later aet — of 1845 — which gave to th 
filling vacancies of electors in these colleges; an ( 

The states having created them, the time of their assemblage hai ine, bi en fixed ( 
their power to till vacancies having been regulated by state law 
exercise of their functions as is any department of the government within 
equipped, their powers are restrained by a few simple limitations laid upon them In th ( 
itself: First, they .must vote for a native-born citizei 

resident of the United States: third, at least one of the persons i"'>r whom the) 
of their own state: fourth, the mode - of voting and certifying their returns 
lion itself. Within these simple and plain limitations the electoral 
of the states and of Congress. 

One fact in the history of the Constitutional ^ . which I 

the recent debates, illustrates very clearly how careful our fall 
the interference I ind to protect their independence by the bulw 

itself. In the draught of the electoral system reported Sept. \, 178; 

••may determine the time of el sing and assembling of the 1 

transmitting their votes." 

That was the language of the original draught : but our fath," 
Legislature should have nothing to do with the action of the colleges ; and tl 
the power to prescribe tin- manner of certifying and transmitting their 
instrument itself prescribed the mode. Thus ( was wholl 

Constitution swept the ground clear of all intruders, and placi 
the independence of the electoral colleges b} ( 

congressman could enter; and. except to fix the day of theii 
electors. 

These colleges are none tie;. 1 and independent b 

They meet on the same day in all the states: they do their work summarily in 
forever. There is no power to interfere, recall tin- 



G XRFJELD'S ( AREER. 



'. is made up, signed, sealed, and transmitted; and thus the second great 

sidential ele mpleted. I ought to correct myself: the second act is the presiden- 

finished the hour when the electoral colleges have cast their votes and 

a third step in the process; and ii is shorter, plainer, simpler than the other two. 

ded certificates of the electoral colleges are forwarded to the President of the Senate, where 

lence of the seals for more than two months. The Constitution assumes that the 

II unknown. But on a day fixed by law, and the only day <>t" all the days of 

m which the law commands Congress to be in session, the last act in the plan of electing a 

be performed. 
•. plain and .simple are the words that describe this third and last step ! Here they are : 

II, in the pro entatives, open all the certificates, and 

Here is n i ambiguity. Two words dominate and inspire the clause. They are the words open 

and com «/. These words are not shrouded in the black-letter mysteries of the law. The} are plain 

I !»\ every man who speaks our mother tongue, and need no lexicon or commentary. 

k : the grand and simple ceremonial by which the third act is to be completed. On the day 

fixed In law. the two houses of Congress are assembled. The President of the Senate, who by the 

titution has been made the custodian of the sealed certificates from all the electoral colleges, takes 

The Constitution requires a ••person" and a •' presence." That " person" is the President 

of thi : and that *' presence" is the " presence" of the two houses. Then two things are to be 

to be opened and the votes are to be counted. These are not legislative acts, 

but clearly and plainly executive acts. I challenge any man to find anywhere an accepted definition of 

an e: nut include both these. They cannot be tortured into a meaning that will carrj 

them beyond the boundari< - of executive action. And one of these acts the President of the Senate 
remptorily ordered to perform. The Constitution commands him to "open all the certificates." 
- i. ites of the electoral colleges. Not any certificates that any- 

body ma-. ■ '. but certificates of electors appointed by tin- states. The President of the 

presumed to know what are the states in the Union, who are their officers, and when he opens 
he learns from the official record who have been appointed electors,. and he finds their 

• 

The Constitution contemplated the President of the Senate as the Vice-President of the United 

pie. And to him is confided the great trust, the custodianship of the 

ction of President. What is it to •• open the certificates?" It would be 

•id inadequate \ iew of that word to say that it means only the breaking of the seals. To open 

rtificates." Tin- certificate is not the paper on which the record is 

mad- T certificate is not a physical but an intellectual act. It is to 

ird; to publish it. When that is done the election of President and Vi< e-Presidenl 

B ins to be done : and here the language of the Constitution changes 

, from the personal to the impersonal. To the trusted custodian of 

rotes have been made known; there remains 

i. titution, •• they shall be Counted." that is. the numbers shall be added up. 

[uired. The Constitution itself declares the result: 

H h until)., i whole 

! !•' presentatives shall immediately choose a Presi- 

de 1 OUt Of tie' m iil- 
has one vote lor President, and only one. 
nd o\ er which I have traveled: The several acts thai constitute the election ol 
I by a pyramid > of three massive, separate blocks. Tin- first, 



COl NT1 \ G THE ELECTOR XL VOTE. 



the creation of the electoral college by the states, is the broad 

judicial, and the executive powers of the states. All the d md all 

the voters of the state co-operate in shaping and perfecting it. 

The action of the electoral colleges forms the second blocl f, and \n< 

the others, superimposed with exactness upon the first. 

Th opening and counting of the votes of the colleges is the littli 
the pyramid. 

Such, Mr. Speaker, was the grand and simple plan by which tl 
empowered all the people, acting under the laws of the several 

leges of independent electors to cl se a President, who should be, n »< the 

the states, but the Chief Magistrate of the whole Nation, the elect of all th 

When the Constitution was completed and sent to the people of the 
subjected to the severest criticism of the ablest men of that generation. T 

to the election of President n il only escaped censure, bul I 

sixty-seventh number of The Federalist, written by Alexander Hamilton, w 
the instrument. That great writer congratulated the country that the convention had 
that made the President free from all pre-existing bodies, that pi 
interfi rence by Congress and from the cabals and intrigues so lik 

The mode of appointment or the Chiel 
quence which has escaped without severe censure, or which 
The most plausible of these who has appeared in print 
guarded. 1 venture somewhat further, and hesitate not to affirm that 
unites in all the advantages the union of which was to he wisl 

pie should operate in the choice of the person to whom so important n ti 
committing the rightol mal i tny pre-established body, b 

the particular juncture. . . . Thej have not made the ap 
men, who might be tampered with beforehand to prostil 
diate acl of the people of America, to be exerted in the i 
meat. And thev have excluded from eligibility to tlii- trust .ill thosi 
in the President in office. 

Another and no less important desideratum «.i- tl. 
bul the people themselves. He might otherwise !><■ ten p 
essar; to duration of his official consequence. This advantage will nl 

representatives, deputed bj the society for the singl 
mi m I', i ' /■:■■ Federalist." 

The earliest commentator upon the Constitution, S I i 
beginning of the present century, made this clause of the Constitution I 
pointed to the fact that all the proceedings in relation to the election 

summary, and decisive : that the right of the Presidenl t" his oflit ne bul tin 

themselves, and thai the certificates of his election were t" be publicly 
ence of the whole National Legislature." 

The electors, we p 

insidcrable distant e from ■ 
respective habitations and occupations immedii 
and cabal. The certificates of their votes 
Legislature. . . . There is no 
intrigues of the Sacred College or -\ Vend 
:\ majority of the whole number <>f electors in their fai 
the eln lion ma} devolve upon the lion-, of K 
may the existence of the I nion be put in extreme ha 

The authorities I have quoted show th th the mode 

of choosing a President, there was still an apprehension that trouble would I by the 

only avenue left open for it- influence, namely, the contingency in which thi 
other door was .shut and barred against the inti rference of < member of < 



GARFIELD'S CAREER. 



ON MARTIAL LAW. 

. and character "f martial law, I am warranted by the uniform 

ituries, by the uniform practice of our fathers during the colonial 

v the unanim >u> de< irts, and by the teachings of our states- 

<• has no authority to suspend the writ of habeas corpus^ or to declare or 

s .my military subordinate of the Executive such authority: but 

he supreme legislative authority of tin- Nation. 

.ml sudden danger, and under the pressure of overwhelming 

uld, without legislative warrant, suspend the writ of habeas corpus* or 

must not look to the courts for justification, but to the Legislature for indemni- 

can be pleaded to justif) the trial of a civilian by a military tribunal 
d ii\il courts arc open and unobstructed. 




155 



